Book recommendations: # 1

I am always reading a book or two, getting through them when I find the time.  I like offbeat novels and I enjoy non-fiction that is told in highly-readable way (think David McCulloch or Tracy Kidder).   One of my favorite novels ever is The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, a Pulitzer prize winner from Michael Chabon:

In its simplest form, it is about the invention of the comic book, but it is so much more than that.  Chabon is one of those writers who has such a way with words that you will stop and re-read his sentences, simply because they take your breath away.  The characters in this book are particularly well-developed and, well, fascinating.


I recommend it highly - as the first in a series of recommendations I will post here from time to time.


(Side note:  Michael’s wife, Ayelet Waldman, is an old friend of mine.  I worked with her 20 years ago and have kept in touch as her own career as a successful novelist has bloomed.  Oddly enough, even though they live in Berkeley, I have never met her husband.  How strange is that?)