 |
 |
|
Tess Uriza Holthe lives in Northern California with her husband. She grew up in a Filipino American family in San Francisco. When the Elephants Dance is inspired, in part by the experiences of her father, who was a young boy in the Philippines during World War II. Tess was named a San Francisco Public Library Laureate in 2003. Her novel was a winner of the Elle Readers Prize and a Finalist for Elle novel of the year.
When the Elephants Dance
In the waning days of World War II, the Filipino people were caught between a brutal Japanese occupation and battling U.S. forces. In this compelling, incandescent novel, thirteen-year old Alejandro Karangalan, his spirited older sister Isabelle, and Domingo, a passionate guerilla commander, narrate the story of the Karangalans—a family who huddle with their neighbors in the cellar of a house near Manila to wait out the war. In their crowded refuge, the group share magical stories of Filipino myth and legend. Spellbinding, with a dazzling array of ghosts, witches, supernatural creatures and courageous Filipinos from history, these tales transport the listeners and give them new resolve to survive.
Tess Uriza Holthe's Summer Reading List
Ship Fever
by Andrea Barrett
Barrett's Intelligent, dazzling collection seduces the reader back to the 18th and 19th century. With a cast of passionate women, scientists, collectors, doctors and inventors exploring the uncharted regions of Mendel's hybridization theory, the migratory habits of birds, the aging mind and the imprisoned heart. I read this book in a feverish 12-hour plane ride and the stories stayed with me long after the journey was through.
How Late It Was, How Late
by James Kelman
Sammy the ex-con is beaten and wakes up blind and in prison after another night of alcoholic fist fighting profanity. He can't remember a thing. What follows is a Kafkaesque world of darkness and irony. Brutally funny, irreverent, and as Sonny would say, "wild'. Sonny's voice is so compelling the reader will be sucker punched in from the first line.
The God of Small Things
by Arundati Roy
This tightly woven, lovingly written book is a feast of exquisite prose. Set in Ayemenem India, this is the tale of two eight-year-old siblings and the rest of the Kochama family. Estha and Rahel are Dizygotic two egg-twins, "a rare breed of Siameses twins, physically separate, but with joint identities." What unfolds is a tale of power struggle. A struggle between the powerful and the powerless, between race and class, love and hate and the fine line we all walk within our own family politics. But most of all it is a tale of enduring love. When I wasn't marveling over Roy's prose, I was smiling over Rahel and Estha's antics. When I wasn't smiling, I was crying. It's that good.
A Prayer for Owen Meany
by John Irving
From the author of The World According To Garp and The Cider House Rules, that alone should say everything there is to say. This book is about friendship, coming of age and faith. It's a mystery, a comedy and a commentary on our foreign policy in the sixties. The title character is pint-sized yet larger than life. Owen Meany is a devilish saint.
Atonement
by Ian McEwan
Precocious thirteen year old Briony Tallis witnesses a flirtation between her older sister and the servant's son. What she does next will change all of their lives forever. Erotically charged and tightly wrought. I was impressed and envious of McEwan's eloquent leanness. There was not an ounce of fat in his narrative.
Back to Authors'
Summer Reading Lists
|
|
|
