Father's Day, Read Aloud, and Beach Read
Forget
Salman Rushdie’s other books and pick up “Luka and the Fire of Life,” an
interesting read-aloud for children who enjoy fantasy with good chapter breaks.
It’s pleasurable reading for adults, too, with clever wordplay, well written
descriptions and inventive solutions to seemingly impossible challenges.
Follow
Luka’s quest with companions Bear the dog and Dog the bear as he overcomes
various obstacles ("increasing levels of difficulty") to reach his
goal and steal the Fire of Life which will, in turn, save his dying father. He
acquires different "tools" along the way (nuthogs, elephant ducks and
more) to help him and video gamers will see the parallels.
Rushdie,
a writer and father, wrote this story for his son Milan and “Haroun and the Sea
of Stories” for son Zafar.
With
Father’s Day around the corner, read Jodi Picoult’s “Lone Wolf,” a story
centered on the father, Luke, who is on life support after a traumatic brain
injury. From bedside to courtroom to the wolf sanctuary that is Luke’s
all-consuming passion, his daughter and estranged son struggle with the
decision to pull the plug or not. The revelation of secrets that have misguided
opinions of, and actions toward, each other add to the tension.
The
characters each tell their side of events in alternating chapters. Luke has
lived an adventuresome life including over a year living in the wild with a
wolf pack in Canada. It is the chapters in Luke’s voice that captivate readers
as he compares life in a wolf pack family to his human family, finding astonishing
parallels.
The
book is enriched by Picoult’s research into wolf behavior which she weaves into
the tale. This thought-provoking page-turner is another book club candidate.
For
a good beach read “The Rule of Four” is much better than the DaVinci Code. The
lives of four intellectual roommates at Princeton intertwine while two of them
try to solve a mystery contained in an ancient book published in 1499 in Venice
- a real book.
Although
the ancient book is a complex allegorical work written in a strange Italian
dialect and sprinkled with other languages and made-up words, the authors
explain it clearly and the puzzles are truly puzzling.
Well written by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason, it has
an interesting view of college life and the characters draw readers into lots
of suspenseful action.
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