international

Private Detective, Cormoran Strike gets roped into taking a case by Leonora Quine to locate her missing husband, with a somewhat dubious promise of payment by Quine's editor. In pondering why he's taken on such a ridiculous case, Strike comes to realize that he did it out of sheer boredom. Coming off the fame of solving the headline grabbing murder of Lula Landry (see: Cuckoo's Calling), Strike has made a bit of a name for himself amongst the rich and want-to-be famous. Trouble is, the only investigative needs they have are following philandering spouses and girlfriends. When what appears to

Marco, a 15-year-old boy, just wants to be a regular citizen and go to school. But his uncle, who is head of their clan, only sees these dreams as trouble. Forced to steal and beg for money on the streets, Marco secretly does all he can to better himself and learn as much as he can. When he overhears plans to cripple him, forcing him to abandon his dreams and tow the line, he knows he must escape. In his hours hiding from his Uncle and the rest of the clan, Marco makes a terrible discovery. Wanting to do the right thing brings his path  across Carl's more than once.

The Marco Effect is the

Out of desperation, Saboor, who is a poor farmer in Afghanistan, sells his three year old daughter, Pari, to a wealthy couple living in Kabul. Pari's older brother, Abdullah, is completely distraught over the loss of his beloved sister. Pari grows up, not knowing or remembering her biological family, but a letter left for her by her deceased uncle reveals the details of the adoption and Pari is then able to search for the family she didn't know existed. A reunion occurs, but perhaps doesn't have the happy ending one might have hoped for. Hosseini is a wonderful storyteller. And the Mountains

This memoir explores the life of Waris Dirie, recognized by many for her work as a model, and by others for her advocacy for human rights and a battle against female genital mutilation. The reader follows her from her early life as a nomad in the deserts of Somalia, to her difficult and sometimes dangerous journey to Mogadishu and eventually London. Working there as an underappreciated maid for her own family, she is "discovered", and sets off on an equally nomadic life as a model. Throughout her journey, Waris has to face the world with her own wits and tenacity. The best part of this story

This film is the perfect antidote to the evening news. Rather than dwelling on the grim or sensational, it magnifies the beauty of the quotidian as it follows a single day in the life of people all over the world. Not only visually stunning, it is also emotionally impacting to see the human race in all its variety and realize how different, and how very much the same, people can be.

This is a very well-written thriller!  The action starts when a plane goes down and Robert Harland, the only survivor, hears a cell phone ringing in the East River.  He wades to the sound and finds his old friend from the CIA dead. Harland uses the phone and takes his friend's wallet, which just happens to contain some discs, for his widow.  Robert Harland is a former British spy, now working for the UN.  The explanation for the crash does not ring true to him and he suspects sabotage. But why? The answer lies in Harland's past!

The plotting is first rate, grounded and realistic. The action

This memoir recounts the story of Malika Oufkir, whose father was the closest aide to the King of Morocco. We follow Malika from the age of five, as she is raised in the palace as the princess’ companion. While life in the harem is a kind of imprisonment itself, it is nothing compared to what awaits her, her mother, and her siblings after her father is executed for an attempt to assassinate the King.

She and her family spend the next 20 years in prisons. Sixteen years into their ordeal, sickly, starving, and desperate to the point of suicide, Malika and some of her siblings manage to dig a

The day after Liyana experiences her first kiss, her father announces that he is moving the family from St. Louis, to his birthplace, Jerusalem. Liyana leaves everything she knows behind, and everything that won't fit in a few boxes and embarks on an adventure to experience a different kind of life.

In Jerusalem there are no white picket fences, or green lawns. Her father works as a doctor in a hospital, her mother stays home and Liyana and her brother are sent to different schools. Liyana carefully dips her toes in the sights, sounds, smells and tastes around her, soaking up the new culture

Tragically beautiful and real, Amour is a profoundly honest depiction of how a stroke can affect both members of a marriage. Though a French film and in subtitles, one hardly needs the translation to follow the emotions—shame, embarrassment, frustration, loss, fear, and above all, love—that both parties go through throughout the movie.

The movie follows the progression of an elderly couple whose lives change when Anne, the wife, has a stroke that leaves half her body paralyzed. Upon returning home from the hospital, Anne asks her husband, Georges, to promise never to take her back to the

A Chilean poet gives a young woman a writing desk full of drawers and cabinets and secret compartments and then disappears under Pinochet’s dictatorship. Later, another woman requests that the desk be returned, and so begins a grand and sorrowful story of the writers who share the desk as it moves from one recipient to another.

Each desk owner experiences an intricate world of love and loss to which the title of this book – Great House – likely refers, and to which the desk is a magnificent metaphor.  Author Nicole Krauss is particularly insightful about how the beguiling pull of desire for

Aimee Leduc, private investigator, starts the novel with her longtime partner Rene Friant absent and out of the country.  Already concerned about running Leduc Detective on her own, matters grow exponentially worse when her friend Saj hits and possibly kills a Serb with Rene's car.  Soon, the accident is tangled up in the mysterious death of a Russian bookbinder, a missing painting that could be nearly invaluable, and even Aimee's own mother, who's been missing for many years.  Without Rene and Saj--who is under suspicion for the Serb's death--to help, Aimee has to draw on all of her cunning

I have been thinking a lot about writing lately. Sometimes it can be easy to get caught up in a story, so much that you don't even know notice if it is well or badly written. I was talking to a friend about Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins yesterday, and I admitted that the first time through, I probably only read about 1/3 of the words. I was flipping pages at a frantic rate to find out what happened, who would live, and who wouldn't make it to the last page. There wasn't time to read descriptions or dialogue when lives were at stake! Of course, I went back and reread the book (every word) and

A friend said it was the best book she’s read in a long time, so I took The Elegance of the Hedgehog on my vacation – seemed perfect, nice little paperback to travel easy with plenty of time to read. After a couple of chapters I was not feeling the same love as my friend, but I was stuck in a hotel room with only that book, so I plodded on. I’m glad I did. Author Muriel Barbery has crafted a novel that is really a work of philosophy – definitely not a beach read – but a gem for the soul. The beautiful language draws you into the story of middle-aged Madame Michael, “fat and ugly” as she calls

A bit strange, but nothing much happens in this book. It's not the kind of "nothing" of Seinfeld fame, but more of a creepy and lonely "nothing." A prostitue is beaten, a girl meets an old acquaintance and then there is a strage dream-like event that you can't even be sure has happened. Maybe it is a dream. Maybe not. There are no definitive answers here.

The entire narrative takes place in one evening, although I felt that there were places that time might have stopped for a while. In the dead of night, when most everyone is in bed, asleep, the people in this book drift together and drift

If you are a film buff, then you already know that the National Film Board of Canada is serious about producing quality culture. Thanks to the internet, you can now see some of their selections from the comfort of your own couch!

Their current feature is a collection of bite-sized, lovely little hors d'œuvres. It's a short film competition held in association with the Cannes Short Film Corner and hosted by partner YouTube. A shortlist of ten films picked by expert Danny Lennon are free for you to sample online, where you can vote simply by clicking the "like" button on their YouTube page

Recently, I realized how much pleasure I derive from reading international fiction with an Irish flair; must be that Irish blood coursing through my veins or a previous lifetime spent roaming locales like Donaghadee, Ballyskeagh or Glengormley. I've escaped to settings like these in the Irish Country Doctor series by Patrick Taylor and Heather Barbieri's The Lace Makers of Glenmara.

The Yellow House by Patricia Falvey is international, historical fiction which takes readers to Northern Ireland during the early 1900's (the beginning of Northern Ireland's fight for independence from Great

This book describes turmoil on many fronts. Felix Hoffman, a Dutch Ambassador finds himself in Prague just before the Velvet Revolution of 1980s, his final diplomatic posting. In Kafka’s haunted city Hoffman spends his insomniac nights studying Spinoza and revisiting the traumas of his life. Hoffman ruminates over his childhood past as a Holocaust survivor, escalating estrangement from his wife due to many indiscressions and the double tragedy of loosing his twin daughters. His hunger for truth and understandingis both physical and emotional . The book is very engaging and fast read and is