justice

The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson has won the Man Booker Prize beating out the favorite, C by Tom McCarthy.

Sir Andrew Motion, Chair of the judges, made the announcement. Motion comments, "The Finkler Question is a marvellous book: very funny, of course, but also very clever, very sad and very subtle. It is all that it seems to be and much more than it seems to be. A completely worthy winner of this great prize."

From everthing I've read, The Finkler Question is a great reading group choice. Identity, ethnicity, justice, relationships are great conversation topics.

Publisher summary: Julian Treslove, a professionally unspectacular former BBC radio producer, and Sam Finkler, a popular Jewish philosopher, writer and television personality, are old school friends.

Author On the Bookcase
Jennifer Vanderbes

I'm thrilled to welcome Jennifer Vanderbes, author of the new book, Strangers at the Feasts, to On the Bookcase. On Thanksgiving Day 2007, three generations of the Olson family gather. While the Olsons navigate the tensions and secrets that mark their relationships, seventeen-year-old Kijo Jackson and his best friend Spider set out from the nearby housing projects on a mysterious job. A series of tragic events bring these two worlds ever closer, exposing the dangerously thin line between suburban privilege and urban poverty, and culminating in a crime that will change everyone's life.

Jennifer writes stories that "attempt to answer certain questions." A simple "what if" question started the story that became Strangers at the Feast.

I love mysteries. One of the main reasons is to challenge myself to figure out the killer before it is revealed. Most times, I can.