It will be interesting to compare the styles of these two very different books!

'Kafka on the Shore' makes pendulum swings between the story of how Kafka runs away from home, and how good-hearted old Nakata, the cat whisperer, embarks on a peculiar quest. Kafka and Nakata are not acquainted, but their lives overlap in piquant, spooky ways.

According to one reviewer, 'Murakami's style is rarely less than seductive and I read Kafka on the Shore in one non-stop feeding frenzy. For sheer love of a thumping narrative, the novel delivers gloriously. The author's trademark kookinesses, particularly his talking cats, maybe-phantoms of army deserters and the appropriation of Colonel Saunders, Kentucky Fried Chicken King, add smartness and colour.'

In 'The Catcher in the Rye' by JD Salinger Holden Caulfield, about to be kicked out of yet another boarding school for flunking most of his

courses decides not to wait

until the end of term, and takes off for his hometown, Manhattan, a few days early. He figures he'll hole up in a cheap hotel, look up a few friends, then arrive home on time. But Holden is deeply troubled, by the death of his beloved younger brother from leukemia, as well as the suicide of a classmate. And alone in an uncaring city his already fragile psyche begins to unravel.

One reviewer said:

“The Catcher in the Rye” is a book that every lover of literature should read. Anybody who wants to write, read it twice. You will seldom come across a more exceptional example of the first person point of view.

Happy reading!

Both books this month have a serious purpose with a funny side? Or do they?

'The World According to Garp' by John Irving chronicles, according to one reviewer 'the life and times of T. S. Garp, the bastard son of Jenny Fields — a feminist leader ahead of her times. This is the life and death of a famous mother and her almost-famous son; theirs is a world of sexual extremes — even of sexual assassinations. It is a novel rich with "lunacy and sorrow"; yet the dark, violent events of the story do not undermine a comedy both ribald and robust.'

The Other Hand by Chris Cleave is the story of Sara - an upper-middle class magazine editor living in a London suburb with her husband and young son - and a 16 year-old Nigerian refugee who calls herself Little Bee. The two meet on a Nigerian beach, and the tragic events that transpire link the women's lives together unalterably. As the story opens, Little Bee has spent two years in a detainment center in Great Britain, when she is suddenly released, without explanation, paperwork, or any form of aid. With nowhere to turn, Little Bee calls Sara and her husband, forcing all three to confront the consequences of the chance encounter that changed each of their lives.

Happy reading!