This summer Diwan Bookstore is taking us on a journey around the world, from the Netherlands to India, New York City, Mexico, Tokyo and a bit about world war II. Dive into these summer reads and lose yourself on the beach.
1. The Dutch House
By Ann Patchett
The Dutch House is a mansion located in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. It was built in 1922 by the Van Hoebeek family, who were originally from the Netherlands and who made their fortune in the tobacco industry. Cyril Conroy, a self-made real estate mogul, bought the mansion in 1946 to surprise his wife Elna.
Their children, Danny and Maeve, were raised in the Dutch House. Elna dislikes the Dutch House, and when Danny is 3 and Maeve is 10, Elna falls ill and abandons the family to work with the poor in India, later relocating to New York City. After their father dies, the two siblings are forced out of their home by their stepmother, Andrea.
2. Mexican Gothic
By Silvia Moreno-Garcia
After receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what she will find —her cousin’s husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region.
3. The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War
By Malcolm Gladwell Diwan Bookstore
Most military thinkers in the years leading up to World War II saw the airplane as an afterthought. But a small band of idealistic strategists, the “Bomber Mafia,” asked, “What if precision bombing could cripple the enemy and make war far less lethal?”
In contrast, the bombing of Tokyo on the deadliest night of the war was the brainchild of General Curtis LeMay, whose brutal pragmatism and scorched-earth tactics in Japan cost hundreds of thousands of civilian lives, but may have spared even more by averting a planned US invasion. In The Bomber Mafia, Gladwell asks, “Was it worth it?”
4. Beyond Order: 12 More Rules For Life
By Jordan B. Peterson
The sequel to 12 Rules for Life offers further guidance on the perilous path of modern life.
In a time when the human will increasingly imposes itself over every sphere of life—from our social structures to our emotional states—Peterson warns that too much security is dangerous.
What’s more, he offers strategies for overcoming the cultural, scientific, and psychological forces causing us to tend toward tyranny, and teaches us how to rely instead on our instincts to find meaning and purpose, even—and especially—when we find ourselves powerless.
5. Klara and the Sun
By Kazuo Ishiguro
From her place in the store, Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, carefully watches the behavior of those who come in to browse, and of those who pass in the street outside.
She remains hopeful that a customer will soon choose her, but when the possibility emerges that her circumstances may change forever, Klara is warned not to invest too much in the promises of humans.
