My recommendation this week, is Ethan Canin’s For Kinds and Planets. The essence of the story charts the ebb and flow of friendship between the seemingly ordinary Orno Tarcher and the born genius Marshall Emerson whom he meets when starting at Columbia University, NY. Canin’s eloquent writing keeps you so emotionly engaged that its hard to put down the book.

Attempting to make up for a lack of posting over the past month, my second recommendation is for a second book by Hanif Kureishi – The Black Album. Given the (often disturbing) change in western attitude towards Islam events since 9/11, this book provides a poignant view of muslims coming to terms with life in London in 1989, the year of the fatwah.