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November 10,1999
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Angela’s Ashes
by Frank Mcourt
Touchstone Books
May 25, 1999
Summary: “When I look
back on my childhood I
wonder how I managed to
survive at all. It was, o f
co u rse , a m ise ra b le
c h ild h o o d : the happy
childhood is hardly worth
your while. Worse than the
o rd in a ry
m ise ra b le
childhood is the miserable
Irish childhood, and worse
yet is the miserable Irish
Catholic childhood.”
So begins the luminous
m em o ir
of
F ran k
M cC o u rt,
b orn
in
Depression-era Brooklyn
to recent Irish immigrants
and raised in the slums o f
Limerick, Ireland. Frank’s
mother, Angela, has no
money to feed the children
sin ce F ra n k ’s fath er,
7 , --- 7-, ,
„ J t l
Hardcover Fiction
1 HARRY POTTER AND THE
PRISONER OF AZKABAN, by J.
K. Rowling.
2 HARRY POTTER A N D THE
CHAMBER OF SECRETS, by J. K.
Rowling.
' ’ ■
3 POP GOES THE WEASEL, by
James Patterson.
4 HARRY POTTER AND THE
SORCERER’S STONE, by J. K.
Rowling.
5 A WALK TO REMEMBER, by
Nicholas Sparks.
6 ‘ ’O” IS FOR OUTLAW, by Sue
Grafton.
7 PERSONAL INJURIES, by Scott
Turow.
8 TARA ROAD, by Mseve Binchy.
9 HEARTS IN ATLANTIS, by
Stephen King.
10 SECOND WIND, by Dick
Francis
Hardcover Non-Fiction
1 ’TIS.by Frank McCourt.
2 TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE, by
Mitch Albom.
3 HAVE* A NICE DAY1 by Mick
Foley
4 A MAN NAMED DAVE, by Dave
Malachy, rarely works, and when
he does he drinks his wages. Yet
M alach y
—
e x a sp e ra tin g ,
Paperback Fiction
1 HARRY POTTER AND THE
SORCERER’S STONE, by J. K.
Rowling.
2 THE SIMPLE TRUTH, by David
Baldacci.
3 TOM CLANCY’S NET FORCE:
Hidden Agendas, created by Tom
Clancy and Steve Pieczenik.
4 RIVER, CROSS MY HEART, by
Breena Clarke.
5 BILLY STRAIGHT, by Jonathan
Kellerman.
6 A MAN IN FULL, by Tom Wolfe.
7 ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT, by
Mary Higgins Clark.
8 WHEN THE WIND BLOWS, by
James Patterson.
9 THE DONOVAN LEGACY, by
Nora Roberts.
10 THE LOOP, by Nicholas Evans.
Paperback Non-fiction
1 ANGELA’S ASHES, by Frank
McCourt
2 BLIND MAN’S BLUFF, by Sherry
Sontag and Christopher Drew with
Annette Lawrence Drew.
3 THE SEAT OF THE SOUL, by
Gary Zukav.
4 A CHILD CALLED "IT ,” by
Dave Pelzer.
5 THE LOST BOY, by Dave Pelzer.
6 A WALK IN THE WOODS, by
Bill Bryson
7 THE PERFECT STORM, by
Sebastian Junster
8 G U N S, GERMS, A N D STEEL, by
irresponsible and beguiling— does
nurture in Frank an appetite for the
one thing he can provide: a story.
Frank lives for his father’s tales o f
Cuchulain, who saved Ireland, and
o f the Angel on the Seventh Step,
who brings his mother babies.
Perhaps it is story that accounts for
Frank’s survival. Frank endures
poverty, near-starvation and the
casual cruelty o f relatives and
neighbors — yet lives to tell his
tale.
Review: “Worse than the ordinary
miserable childhood is the miserable
Irish childhood,” w rites Frank
M cC ourt in A n g e la ’s A shes.
“Worse yet is the miserable Irish
Catholic childhood.” W elcome,
then, to the pinnacle of the miserable
Irish Catholic childhood. Bom in
Brooklyn in 1930 to recent Irish
immigrants Malachy and Angela
M cC ourt, F rank grew up in
Limerick after his parents returned
to Ireland because ofpoorprospects
in A m erica. It turns out that
prospects weren’t so great back in
the old country either— not with
Malachy fora father. A chronically
unem p lo y ed
and
n early
unemployable alcoholic, he appears
to be the model on which many of
our more insulting cliches about
drunken Irish manhood are based.
Mix in abject poverty and frequent
death and illness and you have all
the makings o f a truly difficult early
life.
complex novel. Point ofOrigin will
stand out as one o f Cornwell’s best,
a gripping story that transcends the
genre to examine the dark side of
the human soul.
Review: Virginia’s chief medical
exam iner Dr. Kay Scarpetta is
getting ready foraromantic holiday
w ith her re tire d -F B I-p ro file r
boyfriend, Benton Wesley, when
she re c e iv e s a cry p tic and
foreboding letter:
“Hey DOC, Tick
Tock, Sawed bone
and fire,’’itbegins.
E ven
m ore
c re e p y ,
the
taunting note has
been signed by
C arrie G rethen,
the
p sy c h o tic
killer Kay helped
send
to
a
p s y c h ia tric
facility for going
on a murder spree
w ith
T em ple
G a u lt
in
Comwell ’ s earlier
book Body Farm.
Benton believes
that Grethen— who also happens to
be the former lover o f Scarpetta’s
niece Lucy— has big plans for a
comeback. And before Kay and
Benton can leave for their trip and
discuss it further, Scarpetta is called
upon to don yet another professional
hat, that o f a “consulting forensic
pathologist” for
the
fed eral
g o v e rn m e n t.
Som eone has
burned a highfalutin horse ranch
and all o f its contents, including a
human being, to the ground.
Point of Origin
by Patricia Cornwell
Berkley Pub Group
(August 1999)
Summary: Kay Scarpetta is back
From New York Times
#1 bestselling author of
Unnatural Exposure and
Cause of Death comes a
w h ite-h o t new K ay
Scarpetta novel that pits
Virginia’s chief medical
ex am in er a g a in st an
audacious and wily killer
who uses fire to mask his
crim es. A nd w hen
Scarpetta learns that her
old n e m e sis, C arrie
G rethen, is som ehow
in v o lv ed ,
the
in v e stig a tio n
gets
personal and tragedy
strikes closer to home.
In P o in t o f O rig in ,
America’s leading crime
writer combines literary
talent and style with a
fierce com m itm ent to
justice in this thrilling and
I \£H YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
lATlili
O iffi
1
i : i i \
The Art of
Happiness
by Dalai Lama, H. H. the
Dalai Lama, Dalai Lama xi,
Howard C. Cutler, Dalai
Lam a B sta n -d zin -rg y a -
mtsho
R iv e r h e a d
B ooks
(N o v e m b e r
1998)
S u m m a ry :
“ W h e th e r
one believes
in religion or
not, whether
one believes
in
this
re lig io n or
that religion,
the
very
p u rp o se o f
o u r life is
h a p p in e s s ,
th e
very
motion ofour
life is towards happiness.” — H.H.
the Dalai Lama, from The Art o f
Happiness So popular and so rarely
understood, this Nobel Peace Prize
winner and man o f great inner peace
brings to a general audience the key
to a happy life. In collaboration
with a Western psychiatrist, The
A rt o f H appiness is the first
inspirational book for a general
audience by the D alai Lama.
Through meditations, stories, and
the m eeting o f B uddhism and
psychology, the Dalai Lama shows
us how to d e fe a t d a y -to -d a y
depression, anxiety, anger, jealousy,
or just an ordinary bad mood. He
discusses relationships, health,
family, and work to show us how to
ride through life’s obstacles on a
deep and abiding source o f inner
peace.
Review: Have you ever wondered
what it would be like to sit down
with the Dalai Lama and really press
him about lif e ’s p e rsiste n t
questions? Why are so many people
unhap p y ? H ow can I a b ju re
loneliness? How can we reduce
conflict? Is romantic love true love?
Why do we suffer? How should we
deal with unfairness and anger? How
do you handle the death o f a loved
one? These are the conundrums that
psychiatrist Howard Cutler poses
to the D alai Lam a during an
extended period o f interviews in
The Art ofH appiness: A Handbook
for Living.