Year of the Tiger! (copy)

This may be the Chinese Year of the Rabbit, but it feels more like the year of the tiger. This has nothing to do with Tiger Woods! I am talking about new books with tiger in the title. Actually, I may spend my summer reading all these tiger books making it the summer of the tiger.

Here is the list of outstanding books with tiger in the title: Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua, The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival by John Vaillant, Tiger, Tiger: A Memoir by Margaux Fragoso, and The Tiger’s Wife by Tea Obreht.

Amy Chua began her book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, with one goal in mind. She wanted to show that Chinese mothers are superior to American mothers. Stereotypically, Chinese students do achieve more in our American society. She herself a law professor at Yale raises two daughters, Sophia and Lulu. Sophia performed at Carnegie Hall at the age of 14 and Lulu is a statewide violin prodigy.

Chua claims it is the “Tiger Mother” who trains her children for success. She opens her book with, “The Tiger, the living symbol of strength and power, generally inspire fear and respect.”

The Tiger by John Vaillant tells the true story of a man-eating tiger in Russia. From reviews read, readers will be entranced by the Russian history and the big cat’s fearless stalking of human prey. One story has a tiger pulling a mattress out of a cabin and laying on it while waiting for the woodsman to return. The tiger left only traces of the unlucky man, “so small and so few they could fit in a shirt pocket.” Gulp.

Publishers Weekly says Tiger, Tiger is a, “gut wrenching memoir [that] eloquently depicts psychological and sexual abuse in disturbing detail.” I am getting anxious just typing this international bestseller by Fragoso making its American debut this year.

Another international author sensation is 25-year-old Tea Obreht. Born in Yugoslavia in 1985 she revisits her childhood home in her debut novel, The Tiger’s Wife. Main character, Natalia, relates a story told by her grandfather of an escaped zoo tiger that befriends a deaf-mute woman. Two different stories run concurrent in what BookList claims, “[a] gripping novel of legends and loss in a broken land.”

And you thought Tiger's Wife would be a scathing tell all by Elin Nordegren. Have a roaring good time this summer reading all these books.

Year of the Tiger! (copy)

http://maggiereads.blogspot.com/2011/04/year-of-tiger-copy.html