Book Review-The Snow Queen

I read audio books when I walk or knit or other times when I can't read but can pay attention to something other than what I am doing.  Sometimes I pick out a book that I haven't heard much about.  Usually they are pretty good.  One recent book in this category was The Snow Queen by Michael Cunningham. The book opens with Barrett wandering through Central Park wondering why his latest relationship failed.  He looks up and sees a light that he thinks is looking at him.  When he returns home he decides not to tell his brother Tyler, and Tyler's girlfriend Beth.  Tylerr is a musician who has been using cocaine for some time, even though he has told Barrett and Beth that he is clean.  Beth is dying of a rare form of cancer.  Barret and Beth work for Liz in a vintage shop. The novel follows Barret and Tyler as they try to make sense of their world and cope with reality.  It it a gentle novel about love and art and making your way in the world.

The Snow Queen By Cunningham, Michael 2015-05 - Picador USA 9781250067722 Check Our Catalog Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author of The Hours "Michael Cunningham's best novel in more than a decade."--Megan O'Grady, "Vogue" "" It's November 2004. Barrett Meeks, having lost love yet again, is walking through Central Park when he is inspired to look up at the sky; there he sees a pale, translucent light that seems to regard him in a distinctly godlike way. At …More

Other books by the same author.

The Hours By Cunningham, Michael 2000-01 - Picador USA 9780312243029 Check Our Catalog Awards: Book Sense Book of the Year Award (2001), Boston Book Review (1999), International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award (2000), Pulitzer Prize (1999) The author of "At Home at the End of the World" and "Flesh and Blood" draws inventively on the life and work of Virginia Woolf to tell the story of a group of contemporary characters struggling with conflicting claims of love and inheritance, hope and despair. …More

A Home at the End of the World By Cunningham, Michael 1998-11 - Picador USA 9780312202316 Check Our Catalog From Michael Cunningham, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "The Hours," comes this widely praised novel of two boyhood friends: Jonathan, lonely, introspective, and unsure of himself; and Bobby, hip, dark, and inarticulate. In New York after college, Bobby moves in with Jonathan and his roommate, Clare, a veteran of the city's erotic wars. Bobby and Clare fall in love, scuttling the plans of …More

Flesh and Blood By Cunningham, Michael 2007-04 - Picador USA 9780312426682 Check Our Catalog From the bestselling author of "The Hours" and "Specimen Days" comes a generous, masterfully crafted novel with all the power of a Greek tragedy. The epic tale of an American family, "Flesh and Blood" follows three generations of the Stassos clan as it is transformed by ambition, love, and history. Constantine Stassos, a Greek immigrant, marries Mary Cuccio, an Italian-American girl, and they have …More

Complimentary Reads

The Sense of an Ending By Barnes, Julian 2012-05 - Vintage Books 9780307947727 Check Our Catalog By an acclaimed writer at the height of his powers, "The Sense of an Ending" extends a streak of extraordinary books that began with "Arthur & George" and continued with "Nothing to Be Frightened Of" and, most recently, "Pulse." …More

The Prize By Bialosky, Jill 2015-09 - Counterpoint LLC 9781619025707 Check Our Catalog Edward Darby has everything a man could hope for: meaningful work, a loving wife, and a beloved daughter. With a rising career as a partner at an esteemed gallery, he strives not to let ambition, money, power, and his dark past corrode the sanctuary of his domestic and private life. Influenced by his father, a brilliant Romantics scholar, Edward has always been more of a purist than an …More

And Sons By Gilbert, David 2013-07 - Random House 9780812993967 Check Our Catalog The panoramic, deeply affecting story of an iconic novelist, two interconnected families, and the heartbreaking truths that fiction can hide. …More

Beginner's Goodbye By Tyler, Anne 2012-04 - Chatto & Windus 9780701187194 Check Our Catalog A wise, haunting, and deeply moving new novel about how a middle-aged man, ripped apart by the death of his wife, is gradually restored by her frequent appearances. A beautiful, subtle exploration of loss and recovery, pierced throughout with Tyler's humor. …More

Want to see all the staff picks?  In Encore (our catalog) search for HPL Staff Picks. To sign up for this, or any of our newsletters, check out our Newsletter sign up page.