6. Little Bee by Chris Cleave – a tenuous friendship develops between a Nigerian refugee and a middle-class London widow after they meet under unusual circumstances – another (upcoming) book club selection from the library’s “choose civility” list that will no doubt engender much discussion – told in alternating chapters by the two main characters –timely and harrowing subject matter but holy carp the writing was a bit much at times – audiobook narrator does a beautiful job with the various voices and the sometimes difficult descriptions
7. Lima Nights by Marie Arana – takes place in Lima, Peru in 1986 and 2006 – a white upper-class man begins an affair with a dark-skinned indigenous teenager, and his marriage is destroyed – twenty years later she presses him to make their relationship official, and drama ensues – though the ending seemed a tiny bit rushed, this was an interesting story – very evocative of time and place, especially the racial and class divisions in the city and country – fulfills A of the Litsy A to Z challenge as well as the Read Harder Challenge task to read a book set in Central/South America written by a Central/South American author (cumbersome wording but a task I was happy to undertake)
8. Damn Yankees: Twenty-Four Major League Writers on the World’s Most Loved (and Hated) Team by Rob Fleder (ed.) – sports writers and some non-sports writers contribute essays on a variety of subjects related to loving (or hating) the New York Yankees baseball team – especially noteworthy is novelist Pete Dexter’s in-depth description of Chuck Knoblauch’s troubles on and off the field – only one clunker (a tedious run-down of 100 Yankee catchers’ seasons), but even that was redeemed by some off-kilter humor in the interludes of commentary – audiobook read by a rotating voice cast of narrators (three male and one female) – fulfills Read Harder Challenge task to read a book about sports
