Rosalie's Picks
Rosalie's Picks from 2011
Reference librarian Rosalie Bookston contributes this annotated list of some of the best books she has read in 2011. See also her recommendations below for 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010.
Turow, Scott. Innocent (2010). Legal mystery thriller. Twenty years after his novel Presumed Innocent, the author writes of the same characters, telling the story from various viewpoints: the accused judge, the prosecution, the judge’s son and girlfriend. Full of psychological suspense dealing with moral ambiguities, politics and personalities, motives and frailties. The first half deals with the suspicious death of the judge’s wife and the second half is the compelling courtroom trial, full of surprises.
Langer, Adam. The thieves of Manhattan: a memoir novel (2010). A literary caper novel. An aspiring young writer is appalled by fake memoirs and literary blockbusters while his own work is not recognized. He joins with another author to produce a fake memoir, but suddenly the plot twists and con artists multiply for a wild send-up of publishing, authorship and fiction. This clever story has lots of literary clues and library references.
Li, Yiyun. Gold boy, emerald girl: stories (2010). Luminous prose, stories set in modern China. Adoptees, childless couples, cuckolded husbands; lonely, emotionally quiet characters come to an understanding of themselves as the reader comes to the same understanding. Very individual Chinese characters with universal feelings. A gentle sense of humor, cultural insights, believable and heartbreaking.
Goodman, Allegra. The cookbook collector: a novel (2010). A modern comedy of manners. The story of two very different sisters, their closeness and conflicts. The older sister is an ambitious, capable CEO of a successful dot com. The younger sister is studying philosophy, working in a used bookstore and passionate about environmental causes. Each sister has romantic interests and must come to terms with materialism, money, goals, love, passions, and family. Set in the worlds of new technology, new wealth, old-fashioned values, East Coast and West Coast. Witty and thoughtful.
Keilson, Hans. Comedy in a minor key; translated from the German by Damion Searls (2010). This novella, first published in German in 1947, has just been translated into English. A spare, ironic, penetrating story of a Dutch couple who shelter a Jew during the Holocaust. This comedy of manners (in a minor key) is sympathetic, insightful and beautifully wrought.
Casey, John. Compass rose: a novel (2010). The National Book Award winner (for his novel Spartina) continues that story in this second novel. This time, the focus is on the women who live in a small, traditional sea-faring community in Rhode Island. Rose, the illegitimate daughter, is the focal point in her relationships to others in this “small eco-system”. An old-fashioned story intertwining well-defined characters and place.
Fallows, Deborah. Dreaming in Chinese: Mandarin lessons in life, love, and language (2010). A warm, witty memoir by a linguist who lived for a few years in Beijing and Shanghai. The author examines the difficulty of learning Mandarin and opens up the Chinese world through its language—customs, culture, and history. An insightful guide to the language and its people.
Gopnik, Alison. The philosophical baby: what children's minds tell us about truth, love, and the meaning of life (2009). A psychologist and philosopher explores recent studies and research on babies and children, how our minds work and how babies give us insight into the human condition. Fascinating research and writing about how much babies know and show us about our world.
Ozick, Cynthia. Foreign bodies (2010). This Jamesian novel uses the plot of The Ambassadors, but with a wholly different take. Bea, a divorced New York English teacher in 1952 is dispatched by her bullying, successful brother to Paris to rescue his wayward son. A host of fascinating characters, struggling, fragile and so human. A wry sense of humor, examination of exiles and identity, love and relationships.
Paul, Annie Murphy. Origins: how the nine months before birth shape the rest of our lives (2010). A science writer and journalist who is pregnant with her second child looks at prenatal development. With interviews, new research and statistical studies, the author examines the effects of diet, stress, environmental toxins, alcohol and the like on the developing fetus and on its later personality and health. A fascinating study of influences on our fetal origins.
De Waal, Edmund. The hare with amber eyes: a family's century of art and loss (2010). A well-known potter, ceramicist and curator, the author tells his family’s story through a collection of Japanese netsuke, which he became the fifth generation of the family to treasure. The story is of the Russian-Jewish Ephrussi family, who became fabulously wealthy and cultured, with branches in Paris and Vienna. Through the netsuke collection and its collectors we learn not only of the family members but the society they lived in and influenced. A fascinating history from the late 1800s to today. A remarkable family and a tumultuous century.
Kugel, James L. In the valley of the shadow: on the foundations of religious belief (and their connection to certain, fleeting state of mind) (2011). Faced with a terrible diagnosis of cancer, this articulate, eloquent Biblical scholar examines his own reaction to mortality, God and the basis of religion,. He examines poetry, the Psalms, brain science, other scholarship and more. Moving and insightful.
Smith, Sarah. The other side of dark (2010). Winner of Mystery’s Agatha 2010 award, this is marketed as a young adult novel, as the two narrators are high school students. The well-drawn setting is Brookline, Massachusetts. Katie is having a nervous breakdown coping with the death of her mother and is befriended by Law Walker, who is struggling with his own identity as the son of a prominent Black scholar/radical and his white architectural historian mother. Ghosts, aspirations, and class issues, historical and present social, racial issues—all play a part in this well written, touching story.
Prose, Francine. My new American life: a novel (2011). A twenty-six-year-old Albanian tells the story of her boring life in the New Jersey suburbs looking after a high-school senior whose crazy mother has left him and his dad. The narrator reflects on life in Albania under Communism and paints an ironic, comic comparison to her life in America. Lots of strongly delineated Albanian and American characters. Lies, sex, guilelessness, identity, social commentary and storytelling in a rich, comic novel.
Rosalie's Picks from 2010
Penny, Louise. Still Life (2006). A first mystery novel from an award-winning author. An inspector from Montreal is called in to examine a death, 30 rural miles outside of Montreal, that appears to be a hunting accident. A classic cozy mystery examining village life with all of its diverse characters, from artists, poets, real estate brokers, established families and newcomers. An astute, likable detective who knows how to observe people.
Leon, Donna. A question of belief (2010). This is the nineteenth Venetian mystery with the compassionate, smart, family man, Commissario Guido Brunetti. Set in the blistering heat of an August summer, Brunetti longs to go on his family vacation, but has a nasty murder to solve, as well as help a friend/colleague whose aunt is duped by a con artist. Sensitive, morally upright, Brunetti deals with local political corruption and questions beliefs as he deals with the status quo and stereotypes.
Munro, Alice. Too much happiness: stories (2009). Eleven elegant, insightful short stories by the acclaimed Canadian short story writer. Dealing with ordinary characters that deal with love, loss and growing up. The title story is historical fiction, based on a late nineteenth century Russian mathematician and her struggles with love and the politics of her time. The other stories are mostly set in Ontario, Canada—two young girls and a secret deed that haunts them, a college student and her roommate’s deceptions. All the stories are acute psychological depictions with the new understanding that each character gains.
Rosenblatt, Roger. Making toast: a family story (2010). The author and his wife move in with their son-in-law and young grandchildren after the sudden, devastating death of their daughter. A tender portrait of a family dealing with the everyday amid grief. Very touching and loving, without any sentimentality and with gentle humor. Words matter in the lives of adults and children.
Larsson, Stieg. The girl with the dragon tattoo (2008). The international best seller from Sweden. An investigative financial journalist and a brilliant misfit hacker team up to examine the decades old disappearance of a young girl, heiress in a family that is as wealthy as it is extremely dysfunctional. Love story, financial scandal, horrible facts revealed, plot driven by extreme and compelling characters. Gripping, if occasionally appalling due to exposure of the grimmest of facts and acts.
Cox, Stan. Losing our cool: uncomfortable truths about our air-conditioned world (and finding new ways to get through the summer) (2010). Air conditioning has transformed the ways we eat, sleep, travel, work, buy, relax, vote, and make both love and war. A thorough, fascinating study of how climate control has affected the environment, the economy, and all our lives. From Arizona to India, studies and examples. Also, suggestions on better ways to deal with the issues. Thoroughly researched, with a truly global focus.
Otowa, Rebecca. At home in Japan: a foreign woman's journey of discovery (2010). A beautifully sensitive portrait of a young woman who marries into a traditional Japanese family and lives and raises her family in the traditional, rural house that has been in the family since the 1600s. Short, thoughtful, perceptive chapters on the Japanese, the tug of the past and the realities of the present, the seasons, customs, the everyday, the continuity and changes in the author’s life as well as in her home. Photos and charming pen and ink drawings by the author who has made her home in Japan for 30 years.
Brandon, John. Citrus County (2010). Noir, hilarious, disturbing, suspenseful and heartbreaking. The reader is inside the mind of precocious, heroic, young teenager Shelby, her first crush the young, confused, neglected, dangerous, bad Toby and the equally confused, idealistic, rebellious young social studies teacher. How these lives interact when a young toddler is kidnapped. Complex motives and consequences play out in a swampy southern Florida community.
Eddison, Sydney. Gardening for a lifetime: how to garden wiser as you grow older (2010). A life-long gardener and writer, the author looks at continuing to gardening after 40 or more years in her Connecticut garden. After the death of her beloved husband and facing increasing physical limitations, she determines what works best—more shrubs, less fussy perennials, setting priorities, controlling costs and time. Much sensible gardening advice for a gardener or armchair gardener of any age. Both specific plant suggestions and a wise general philosophy. Nicely illustrated with pen and ink drawings.
O'Flynn, Catherine. The news where you are: a novel (2010). A local news anchorman in Birmingham, England reaches mid-life and begins to questions the losses in life. The warm, compassionate protagonist looks at life from his mother’s and father’s perspective, as well as his older flashy friend, mentor and co-anchor, and his wise young daughter Humorous, thoughtful, well written—an everyman’s questions of what remains. On aging, appearance, professional goals, attitude, and memory with distinct characters and setting.
Canty, Kevin. Everything: a novel (2010). Set in Montana—where the setting matters—four characters choose new romances, in spite of complicated pasts. The characters make misguided choices, but come to terms with themselves, their pasts, and each other. Spare, lovely prose. Real, ordinary, individual people.
Smith, Martin Cruz. Three stations (2009). In this seventh Arkady Renko novel, our moralistic, ironic depressive won’t give up on his inspector/detective role though he is chastised by his boss and faces appalling bureaucratic corruption. Set in Komsomol Square, known as Three Stations, where the confluence of three major rail lines brings a million passersby a day along with street urchins, vicious thugs, prostitutes, drug dealers and all matter of criminal low life. Contrasted with this is the fabulously rich, but equally dishonest world of the new capitalistic oligarchs. There’s a stolen baby, a tough, vulnerable, unwed mother, a murder victim that the police insist is simply a drug-overdosed prostitute and an over-the-top charity fundraiser.
McAndrew, Megan. Dreaming in French (2009). The narrator of this charming and thoughtful novel is a 15-year-old girl in Paris among privileged American expatriates in the 1970s. A coming of age novel with socio-political history and the study of a family as it breaks up and grows up.
Yglesias, Rafael. A happy marriage: a novel (2009). In alternating chapters, the author explores the beginning and ending of his thirty-year marriage, concentrating on the first three weeks of meeting and the last weeks of his wife dying of cancer, saying good-bye. Though wrenching, the novel is also funny and true to two very different individuals who value above all their marriage. Lots of family characters, and an impressive examination of masculinity, differences, creative ambitions, and how love works. Tender, raw and true.
Trevor, William. Love and summer (2009). A subtle, lyrical novel set in rural Ireland of the 1950s. A young orphan marries, for convenience, an older widowed farmer, but during a summer finds herself falling in love with a visiting, feckless, bachelor. Secrets of the heart, the past, other lives all intertwine in the passions of the ordinary. From a master Irish storyteller.
Gawande, Atul. The checklist manifesto: how to get things right (2010). The acclaimed surgeon, Harvard Medical School professor and writer covers successful procedures in aviation, medical surgery, building construction, and other fields. With lots of individual examples, as well as statistical studies that show how good checklists build teamwork, get a job done, and save lives. Riveting and informative.
Tyler, Anne. Noah's compass: a novel (2009). The sixty-year-old protagonist loses his boring teaching job, and begins to simplify his life and question what it has all meant. After moving into his new apartment, he is mugged, and most disturbingly, has no memory of what happened. He begins to question memory in general as he examines his past (two failed marriages, three distant daughters), his future (what does he want for happiness) and the present (is a new, inappropriate love affair the answer?). The characters are believable in this wise and funny novel. A classic.
Wulf, Andrea. The brother gardeners: botany, empire and the birth of an obsession (2009). A very lively history of gardening, especially through the contributions of six men in the eighteenth century over several continents that left an incredible legacy. This journalist/author looks at the financial and cultural importance of collection, classification and dissemination of plants through these quirky, gifted botanists and enthusiasts who are passionate about plants. An enlightening and entertaining story of adventure and history.
McCann, Colum. Let the great world spin: a novel (2009). Set in New York, on a single day in 1974 when a man walked on a tightrope between the World Trade Center towers. This event acts as the central conceit following the lives of a group of prostitutes in the Bronx, an Irish radical priest who ministers to the down and out, his brother who visits him, a Park Avenue woman who has lost a beloved son in the Vietnam war and the group of mothers who have also lost sons. The interconnections between various lives, their sorrows, love and redemption are beautifully and masterfully told.
Chevalier, Tracy. Remarkable creatures (2010). A wonderful, paleontological, historical novel set in the early 1800s in Lyme Regis, England. Two women, of different class status, become friends over their interest in finding fossils on the beach. These finds cause religious concerns, scientific interest and community gossip. In spite of their class differences, and complicated emotions of envy and loyalty, the strength of their friendship grows. A fascinating examination of the two women and their times and communities.
Marton, Kati. Enemies of the people: my family's journey to America (2009). An intimate, thorough look at the journalists parents through the secret files of the Hungarian Stalinist regime. Marton is able to examine the lengthy files after the collapse of the Soviet regime. Her parents were brave and fun-loving Hungarian journalists in Hungary and because they were welcomed by the American press and diplomatic corps, and lived comfortable lives, they were under extreme suspicion. Because of the times and who they were, their story is documented by their grown daughter who remembers the events as a six-year-old child, and reads all the details of their lives in the files. An important work of history as well as a moving, personal story.
Bronson, Po. NurtureShock: new thinking about children (2009). From two journalists, some provocative thoughts on child rearing. The two authors, using current research, turn some traditional theories on their head on examining how children develop attitudes about race, sibling relationships, why children lie, and discounting teaching to the test and over-praising children instead of recognizing different times of developing and valuing effort over praise, and urging children, especially teenagers to get more sleep.
Collins, Gail. When everything changed: the amazing journey of American women from 1960 to the present (2009). A captivating, accessible history of American women over the last 50 years from a New York Times columnist and author. Chronicles the professional and personal struggles of well-known women to ordinary, unknown women through political, social, cultural, and economic history. Stereotypes, advances, backlash, conflict and how the women’s movement has changed all of our lives. From a judge chastising a woman wearing slacks (while paying her boss’s traffic fine) to Hillary Clinton’s run for President. Many personal stories that affect our lives today – a must read for both sexes of all generations.
Schine, Cathleen. The Three Weissmanns of Westport (2010). A well-crafted novel of manners, an update of Jane Austen’s Sense and sensibility. Well-to-do Manhatthanite is divorced by her husband of nearly 50 years, and she and her two daughters (one sensible worrier, one drama queen) end up in a beach cottage in Westport, CT. Money problems, romance problems, coincidences, misjudgments, and witty, heartfelt repartee.
Harding, Paul. Tinkers (2009). A first novel and Pulitzer Prize winner. George, on his deathbed, with 8 days to live, thinks back on his life, as a clock repairer, and his father, a tinker and traveling salesman. Switching back and forth in time to three generations, an examination of fathers, sons, and time in luminous, descriptive prose.
Dee, Jonathan. The Privileges (2010). A fascinating portrait of a young couple who become privileged – taking risks, becoming excessively wealthy. The novel opens with the wedding of a couple, portrays their focused nuclear bonds, and how their risk and wealth play out throughout their lives. Felicitous, convincing prose that brings the reader to ask questions about family loyalty, risk, morality and vulnerability.
Rosalie's Picks from 2009
Lipman, Elinor. The family man (2009). A New York comedy of manners romp. Gay, divorced, urbane Henry reconnects with an adored stepdaughter 24 years later and his selfish, flamboyantly oblivious of social manners ex-wife. Loving, witty, ridiculous and fun.
Bradley, C. Alan. The sweetness at the bottom of the pie (2009). A Debut Dagger Award winner, this very English mystery has as its sleuth pig-tailed 11 year old Flavia de Luce. Set on a decaying estate, in the 1950s, Flavia's passionate interest in chemistry and poisons, her love and concern for her widowed father, and her sibling rivalry with two older sisters come into play after overhearing an important conversation and finding a body in the cucumber patch. Amusing and brilliant. English class differences and a variety of characters in this cozy Sherlockian mystery.
Carpenter, Novella. Farm city: the education of an urban farmer (2009). A funny and thoughtful memoir of a young idealistic pragmatist, who farms on an empty lot next to her apartment in a very sketchy Oakland neighborhood. She starts out with growing vegetables, includes bees and chickens, and progresses to ducks, geese, turkeys and eventually pigs. Informative, inspiring and entertaining.
Walbert, Kate. A short history of women: a novel (2009). Through five generations of women, we see the complicated legacy of mothers and daughters as they each struggle with "the woman question" and how their families have responded to their times. Different voices, each unique, moving and thoughtful from a prize-winning novelist.
Leonard, Elmore. Road dogs (2009). Three characters from Leonard's past novels meet in this story. A nice bank robber and a millionaire Cuban criminal become friends in prison, and on their release, meet up with a psychic girlfriend. Who is loyal to whom? Whom do you trust? When there is lots of money, where do loyalties and love come into play?. Filled with believable characters and convincing dialogue of clever cons, tough criminals, and smart, sexy women.
Meloy, Maile. Both ways is the only way I want it (2009). A brilliant collection of eleven short stories, dealing with desire and loyalty, awareness and confusion. Written in transparent prose to present complex feelings. Young girls tentatively grasp the nature of sexual longing, adult men and women explore the option of leaving a loving marriage for new longing. The stories explore relationships between parent and child or siblings. Most characters come to some new understanding if only to realize they don't understand the nature of love.
Westlake, Donald E. Get real (2009). This is the final comic caper in the Dortmunder series. The Gang is hired by a television producer for a reality show that will somehow create and follow a heist, while sidestepping real consequences. There's lots of fun as the double crosses and extra activities are planned and revealed. If you've ever wondered about the reality of a reality show, this double entendre will provide real laughs.
Brent, Frances. The lost cellos of Lev Aronson (2009). The story of an accomplished cellist and teacher. Born in Germany, living in Russia and Latvia, Aronson, a Jewish cellist, sees his world altered. This individual story explores the loss and survival of music, musicians, and their instruments during the Holocaust. Heart-rending and remarkable, and an understanding of music and what it means to those who practice it and to our culture as a whole.
Alison, Jane. The sisters antipodes (2009). An unusual, compelling memoir. Two diplomatic families meet in Australia—one Australian, one American, both have two daughters roughly the same age. With so much in common, the friendship suddenly changes when the couples change partners and lives. The youngest girl, who is only four at the time, is the author who explores memory and the effect of the separation, living with a stepfather, and the parallel lives of the two reconfigured families who are now far apart.
Ellard, Colin. You are here: why we can find our way to the Moon but get lost in the mall (2009). From a Canadian experimental psychologist a study of space, direction and navigation in our world. The author amusingly and with many facts, studies and insights explores how we make our way in the world, at home, at work, in cities and country, at travel, in cyberspace and our environment as a whole. Touches on many concepts of space—in nature ,architecture, and our minds. Fascinating.
Neufeld, Josh. A.D.: New Orleans after the deluge (2009). Graphic artist Neufeld presents the story of Hurricane Katrina through the diverse perspective of 7 New Orleanians six hours before, during and after the hurricane. A moving work of journalism and documentation presented with real graphic force. The profiled are from all walks of life and all areas of the city—some weathered the storm, some were in the convention center, some fled—all survived but were affected by the huge losses and the experience of the storm and the responses to the storm. Moving.
Doctorow, E. L. Homer & Langley: a novel (2009). A poignant story based on the wealthy, eccentric Collyer brothers who lived on Fifth Avenue in New York and became compulsive hoarders, packing their mansion with so much stuff that it eventually killed them. But the focus here is not prurient, but rather a wonderful chronology of all that pass through the house during the decades: a conniving Irish immigrant maid, an outrageous gangster, a jazz musician, society ladies, hippies, and more. Also—a tender story of the relationship between the narrator, who is blind, and his brother, damaged by the battle gassing of World War I and who is devoted to his brother and eccentric projects. Full of humor and history. The story is as thoughtful, feisty and unique as the two brothers.
Doxiadis, Apostolos. Logicomix: an epic search for truth (2009). A fascinating approach and medium for examining the life and ideas of the great philosopher and logician Bertrand Russell. This graphic novel frames the story with a lecture by Russell on the eve of World War II and examines his search for truth, using history, personal stories, Russell's contemporaries, and the creators of the work itself. It takes complex ideas: truth, certainty, madness and presents them grippingly and clearly in this format.
Atkinson, Kate. When will there be good news? a novel (2008). Four different narratives contribute to this thriller involving kidnapping, murder, and a train crash. A young mother who is a doctor in Edinburgh has a horrific secret in her past that has ramifications in the events that play out 30 years later. Coincidences and plot twists. Especially strong women characters who are determined, funny, loving and capable in difficult circumstances.
Le Carré, John. A most wanted man: a novel (2008). Sorting out loyalties and the truth In the post 9-11 world of the war on terror is a challenge. A young, vulnerable, damaged Chechen, Muslim youth is smuggled into Germany. An attractive, smart, young German civil rights lawyer defends him. An older, gentleman, British banker becomes entangled. And the spies of several countries are at cross purposes, least of which includes morality. Finely drawn characters and multiple questions about spies and safety.
McPherson, James M. Abraham Lincoln (2009). From a Pulitzer Prize winner and noted historian comes this succinct account of our greatest president. Here are the essential facts and meaning of Lincoln's life in this very brief biography. A wonderful portrait of Lincoln from his humble beginnings to his great legacy.
Barry, Sebastian. The secret scripture (2008). In this fine novel, Roseanne McNulty at 100 years old and in a mental institution in Western Ireland nearly her whole adult life writes of her life. Her quiet, unassuming, long time psychiatrist takes a new interest in her and attempts to learn more of her past and he too keeps a journal. Roseanne's story reflects the troubled history of Ireland, two World Wars, the Irish civil war, the power of the Catholic priests, the assumptions and attitudes towards women and sexuality. Complicated and heartbreaking stories. An unforgettable portrait of mid-twentieth-century Ireland.
Kushner, Rachel. Telex from Cuba (2008). A beautifully accomplished first novel set in the American community in Cuba in the 1950s leading to Castro's revolution. We hear the voices of two children, of privileged white families working for the United Fruit Company. As these observant young people come of age, we see the complicated lives of adults with issues of race, culture, desires and ambitions. Two other main characters are a mysterious French political opportunist and a mysterious, beautiful prostitute who both are caught up in the political ploys of the government and the revolution. Incredible, fascinating verisimilitude.
Bazell, Josh. Beat the reaper (2009). A darkly comic suspense novel. Pietro Brnwa at age 14 discovers his grandparents, who are raising him, murdered. He is taken in by a mob family and transformed into a very successful hit man. Next transformation is as a doctor in Manhattan's worst hospital. But the past and present collide in a fast-paced narrative of violence, obscenities, comedy and empathy. Graphic language, characters and plot.
Wray, John. Lowboy (2009). A suspenseful story of a sixteen-year-old paranoid schizophrenic who is off his medication, escaped from a mental institution, and on a journey to save the world from global warming. The chapters alternate between this troubled boy and his mother and a police detective who are searching for him in New York City before he does violence to himself or others. It is chilling to see the world so convincingly from this youth's point of view. A novel that grapples with mental illness, sanity, sex, and when lines are crossed.
Aira, César. How I became a nun (2006). Meta-fiction from an important Argentinean author. The first person narrator (same name as the author), recounts his life of stories centering on when he is five and his father introduces him to ice cream, which results in poisoning, a death, imprisonment, and revenge. Darkly comic, gender switching, playing with truth and fiction, memory and imagination.
Eck, Joe and Wayne Winterrowd. Our life in gardens (2009). Renowned garden designers, in an alphabetical series of short essays, talk about their garden, and reflect on their life and gardening together. Lots of gardening information, but also a witty, sweet, quirky commentary on gardening, plants. love, life and death and how all that is related. Both useful and moving.
London, Joan. The Good Parents (2008). A young woman leaves her country home in Australia to take a job in Melbourne and separate from her parents and rural life, only to become ensnared in an affair with her older boss. Her parents come to visit her, and she has disappeared. The parents search for their daughter and re-examine their own youthful choices and the journey they've taken. A portrait of family, friends, community, separation, generational differences and timeless truths with characters who are loving, flawed, and struggling. Deft writing, cutting between times and empathetic characters.
Aridjis, Chloe. Book of clouds (2009). A first novel narrated by a young Jewish woman from a large family in Mexico, making her solitary way in Berlin. Atmospheric, wry, and poetic, a realistic portrait of the ghosts of present day Berlin.
Athill, Diana. Somewhere towards the end (2009). A refreshing, thoughtful memoir on aging written by the distinguished, nonagenarian British editor and writer. In elegant prose, the losses and gains of old age are treated frankly, wittily and wisely.
Rosalie's Picks from 2008
Dawidoff, Nicholas. The crowd sounds happy: a story of love, madness, and baseball (2008). An elegiac memoir of growing up with divorced parents, a mother who struggles admirably but with frustration to do the best for her children and a father whose descent into madness becomes more embarrassing and frightening to a young boy coming of age. The escape into baseball provides both solace and metaphor for a difficult childhood. An insightful, honest, and touching memoir of how this young boy felt and was shaped by his family and times.
Benioff, David. City of thieves: a novel (2008). During the Siege of Leningrad, two very different young men are set an impossible task, procuring a dozen eggs for a colonel's daughter's wedding cake. Lev and Kolya, set out through graphically portrayed starving Leningrad and into the Russian countryside, even behind enemy lines. A tense yet humane and humorous adventure story of war, friendship and coming of age. Gripping, entertaining, and moving.
Park, Ed. Personal days (2008). A novel of cubicle life. A series of employees in a Manhattan office await the axe—and gossip, email, wonder about work, life, and each other. Lots of word play. Clever.
Lahiri, Jhumpa. Unaccustomed earth (2008). Eight fine short stories, three of them linked by characters who re-appear. The stories are set in Massachusetts towns, Seattle, India and Thailand. All deal with relationships, between siblings, parents and children, lovers and friends. Stories of dislocation, identity, and communicating, or not, with each other. Warm, wise, and moving.
Silber, Joan. The size of the world (2008). Interlinked stories of characters and places, across several continents, spanning a hundred years. One character, a young woman in her twenties, in the 1920s goes to Indochina and finds herself more gripped by the place than her brother who seemed immersed in the culture. Another character ends up in Thailand after being in Vietnam during the war. Yet another character is in Mexico in the 1960s. All the characters seem drawn to understand and be a part of a different culture and examine notions of love, loss, war, and home.
Robinson, Marilynne. Home (2008). An old fashioned novel of a family in rural Iowa in the 1950s. The prodigal son, Jack, comes home after twenty years to see his dying father, the Reverend. Jack's youngest sister is home, disappointed in her life, but lovingly caring for her father. Complicated relationships, carefully and beautifully told, examining the heartbreaking questions of character, love, family and faith.
Glass, Julia. I see you everywhere (2008). A novel told in the first person, with alternating voices of two sisters. The sisters' differences and complex bond make for misunderstanding, humor, and growing. Organized, conventional, brainy, non-athletic older sister Louisa competes and also longs for closeness with Clemson who is adventurous, risk taking, and witty. Both struggle with relationships with men, and knowing what they want. Life choices and events have consequences. Bittersweet and well written.
Morrison, Toni. A mercy (2008). From the Nobel Laureate, and author of Beloved, a tender, heart-rending tale set in Maryland in the 1680s. We hear the voices of four very different women: a native American whose family has been destroyed by small pox, the English wife who has left a home of persecution for the New World, a young slave girl given away by her mother and master, and a strange orphan, all in the household of a man who detests slavery, but falls prey to the lure of riches it provides. A harsh new world of class and race, and individuals looking for love, decency and meaning.
Krasikov, Sana. One more year: stories (2008). A short story collection debut featuring post-Soviet immigrants. Looking for a better life, connections between the old country and the new, looking for love, settling for workable relationships. Sad, realistic, but hopeful stories of women with lovers, friends, husbands, children and parents. Insightful and graceful.
Roth, Philip. Indignation (2008). In 1951 nineteen-year-old Marcus Messner flees his father's over-possessive love by transferring from a Newark, N.J. college to a traditional, Midwestern college in Winesburg, Ohio. In this provocative, compassionate novel, Marcus faces the bewilderment of the conservative society at large, the imminent threat of being drafted for the Korean War, an enigma and sexual exhilaration of a first love, mystifying roommates and deans, as well as struggling to understand his own parents, himself, and his relationships to all these. Quietly brilliant, funny, and disturbing.
Barth, John. The development: nine stories (2008). A satirical collection of linked stories set in a prosperous, gated community of Maryland's Eastern Shore. Nearly all the residents are empty nesters facing the last years of their lives, examining their pasts, looking at their present, and fearful of the future as they wonder about their relationships, identities, and accomplishments. The nine stories are titled: Peeping Tom, Toga Party, Teardown, The Bard Award, Progressive Dinner, Us/Them, Assisted Living, The End , Rebeginning. These are darkly comic stories from the acclaimed metafiction writer up to his usual tricks.
Adams, John. Hallelujah junction: composing an American life (2008). A journey across the musical and social landscapes of America and through the life and times of one of today's most admired and performed composers. Brilliant, introspective, and enlightening about his times and his music.
Vargas Llosa, Mario. The bad girl (2007). The narrator begins his love story of erotic infatuation in Peru in the 1950s. Over four decades, from Paris, Tokyo, London and Madrid, Ricardo keeps falling for the bad girl, no matter her disguise or reprehensible behavior. The structure of the novel takes us through this relationship in time and places, beautifully detailed. Intriguing, involving, maddening, and making sense in a skillfully told narrative full of period politics.
Hall, Parnell. The hitman (2007). The hapless New York PI Stanley Hastings takes a hitman as a client so said hitman can retire from unpleasant work. Of course who's following who, and mixed-up identities provide a logical solution to a ridiculous dilemma. The supporting cast of characters are Stanley's smart wife, his long-suffering police officer friend, and his unscrupulous personal injury lawyer employer.
Delson, Rudolph. Maynard & Jennica (2007). A comic love story, of two New Yorkers, 2000-2002. Told from 35 viewpoints (with a helpful list of narrators). Can Maynard, a failed, eccentric, pessimistic musician and neurotic, productive, attractive Jennica find true love? This clever, and well-structured urban comedy is also an ironic commentary on our times.
Litman, Ellen. The last chicken in America: a novel in stories (2007). Twelve interconnected stories of Russian immigrants in Pittsburg, Pa. The different generations, the different personalities, but the common culture and struggles with their new experiences binds these characters together. Poignant, humorous.
Woiwode, Larry. A step from death: a memoir (2007). After a close call in a farming accident, North Dakota author and poet addresses this memoir to his son and recounts his writing , farming and family life. The interior and exterior life are a blend as he reminisces and analyzes. Particularly touching is the author coming to terms with the father/son relationship. The memoir travels back and forth in time and place, from New York and the West.
Borchert, Don. Free for all: oddballs, geeks, and gangstas in the public library (2007). A humorous, accurate, and fond look at the public library. The author has been a library assistant at a southern California urban branch library for a number of years and describes the varied patrons, procedures, and staff. Public libraries in America reflect diversity, democracy and bureaucracy. Funny and endearing anecdotes.
Schwegel, Theresa. Person of interest (2007). A noir, gritty, sensitive police procedural. An undercover Chicago cop is working on a case with the Asian community and drug deals while his wife and rebellious teenage daughter have secrets of their own. How the work/family life interacts amid secrets, lies, and desires. Some graphic scenes. The dialogue, the misinterpretations, the good intentions are painfully realistic.
Faust, Drew Gilpin. This republic of suffering: death and the American Civil War (2008). The historian Faust (who is also the President of Harvard University) has written a history of the Civil War that examines what the huge loss of American lives meant to our country. Careful research and analysis and the use of many primary sources, such as letters, diaries, reports, newspapers, sermons, poetry and more provides a documentary immediacy. These many voices bring us understanding of how all were affected and the legacy for us as a people and nation. Profoundly moving and insightful.
Black, Cara. Murder in the rue de Paradis (2008). Detective Aimée Leduc is determined to find the murderer of her journalist boyfriend. This is the author's 8th novel in this series, all set in Paris. The hostilities of the Turkish and Kurdish émigrés, the Parisian terrorist attacks and the dangerous world of journalists who expose corruption lead Aimee into a contemporary Parisian world of danger, suspense and challenges.
Ozick, Cynthia. Dictation: a quartet (2008). Four long short stories by a master writer. The title story deals with a clever, literary plot by the secretaries to Henry James and Joseph Conrad. The second story is of an aging actor making a comeback. The third story is an American in Mussolini's Italy just before the war—bewitched by a pregnant sixteen-year-old maid. And the final story is a young girl exploring her family's secrets, opinions, and obligations. All the stories deal with deceptions and revenge. The absurd, the tragic and the ordinary are bound by wit and insight.
Brockmeier, Kevin. The brief history of the dead (2006). This novel is told in alternating chapters. The first voices we hear are the recently departed souls who live in the City as long as there is someone who remembers them on earth. The other voice is of Laura Byrd, a researcher in Antarctica battling on her own. A wonderful puzzle/parable and satire/adventure story. Fascinating settings.
O'Neill, Joseph. Netherland (2008). This novel is set in New York City after 9/11. A Dutch financial analyst lives in the Chelsea Hotel and tries to understand his life and marriage when his wife leaves him and takes their young son back to England. The protagonist becomes involved with the sport cricket, a new milieu of immigrants, and especially a Trinidadian who has big dreams in America. A literary novel of place, of a marriage, of male friendship, of ethics, and of identity.
Rosalie's Picks from 2007
Schulman, Helen. A day at the beach (2007). Set in New York on September 11, 2001, this novel juxtaposes the horrors of the day with new insights of the troubled marriage of a struggling, but successful choreographer, his wife, who was his principal dancer and muse, and their young autistic son. Other friends and strangers come into play during the 24 hours. The immediacy of the day brings clarity to this couple's past and what their future will be. Moral predicaments, family relationships, ethnicity, New York lifestyles, art and work, love and meaning in a thoughtful, carefully wrought novel.
Shipley, David. Send: the essential guide to email for office and home (2007). Like a perfect email, this book is clear, short, helpful, and funny. The chapters are: Introduction: Why do we email so badly? -- When should we email? -- The anatomy of an email -- How to write (the perfect) email -- The six essential types of email -- The emotional email -- The email that can land you in jail -- S.E.N.D. -- The last word.
DeLillo, Don. Falling man (2007). Staggering out of the World Trade Center on September 11, the main character ends up at his ex-wife's home. Through several points of view, this novel explores the terrible confluence of the political and personal, how the impact of September 11th changed the lives, but not the personalities of these characters. DeLillo's fiction is artful, intense, real, and affecting.
Steinke, Darcey. Easter everywhere: a memoir (2007). Though this memoir covers the usual hard life childhood, inadequate parents, and a rebellious teenager—it is entirely non-judgmental. The focus is on the author's search for spiritual, Christian meaning in her life. She is the daughter of a disillusioned minister who eked out a subsistence living ministering to Carnival employees and mental institution patients. Her mother was a depressed, former beauty queen. The author loved her parents, never blaming them, and became obsessed by Christian ritual and theology. An unusual memoir, in spare, careful, prose.
Swann, Maxine. Flower children (2007). Linked stories of the coming of age of four siblings, raised by hippie parents in rural Pennsylvania. Spare, direct prose chronicles the unique upbringing of the children. Their world collides with other relatives, school, friends and the split and new partners of their parents. Funny, thoughtful, and perhaps a bit disturbing, this novel explores freedom, mores, feelings and growing up.
Volk, Patricia. To my dearest friends (2007). Two sixtyish New York women come together, reluctantly, to understand the letter left to them by a close mutual friend. This is witty, stylish, well written chick lit (hen lit?)—a comedy of manners exploring friendships, personalities, families, and love.
Hamid, Mohsin. The reluctant fundamentalist (2007). A fictional, compelling monologue by a young, thoughtful Pakistani. Changez has graduated from Princeton, has a complicated, affluent American girl friend, and a high-powered, prestigious New York job as a financial analyst. And then September 11 happens. He must reexamine his ties to his family and his people. Which is his home, and where do his loyalties, values, and sense of self reside? Subtle psychological suspense.
Sofer, Dalia. The Septembers of Shiraz (2007). This debut novel deals with an affluent Jewish family at the time of the Iranian revolution, September 1981. The father has been imprisoned and his wife, ten-year-old daughter, and college-age son abroad in the U.S. have no information, though all their lives have changed dramatically. The dilemmas of race, religion, class and politics are complexly portrayed with empathetic characters.
Petterson, Per. Out stealing horses (2007). An award winning Norwegian novelist , in spare, well-paced prose tells the story of a 67-year-old widower who has gone back to live in a remote cabin on Norway's easternmost border. The story alternates with the protagonist coping with the self-imposed hardships in this lovely, but harsh environment that recalls a seminal summer of 1948. This man's sexual awakening and awareness, his boyhood friendships, and most crucially, his relationship with his father are explored. The tragic events and how they play out in peoples' lives and how the main character comes to understand himself and his world are beautifully told.
Kurzweil, Allen. The grand complication (2001). A witty, intellectual romp of a novel. A skilled New York Public reference librarian is hired privately to do research for a mysterious, wealthy and knowledgeable gentleman with his own agenda. Mix it up with library jokes, literary references and a French artistic wife who needs conjugal attention. A literary labyrinth of fun that also addresses issues of identity, collecting, history, work and relationships.
Williams, John. Stoner (1965). A classic novel following the life of a Missouri farm boy born at the end of the nineteenth century. The protagonist-existential hero becomes a college literature teacher. He lives a modest life, full of disappointment and yet stoically and with dignity, also finds happiness and fulfillment. A wonderfully paradoxical portrayal, done simply but recognizing all the tender complexities of life.
Bennett, Alan. The uncommon reader (2007). This witty, delightful novella has the Queen of England discovering the joys of reading. To the consternation of the public and the Queen's staff, reading does change us. If you are a reader, you will chuckle and nod your head while reading this work. You will also add to your list of titles to read.
Hample, Zack. Watching baseball smarter: a professional fan's guide for beginners, semi-experts, and deeply serious geeks (2007). The more you know about baseball, the more you love it. This is a thorough and entertaining guide to all aspects of baseball.
Matalon Lagnado, Lucette. The man in the white sharkskin suit: my family's exodus from Old Cairo to the New World (2007). A wonderful memoir of a family from the 1930s and 40s to present day told by a much loved daughter, born in Cairo and settling in New York. The feelings of culture, time and place are visceral—from clothes, scents, food, religion, politics, work, love and family. Enormous contrasts are made real by the daughter of the man who once wore white suits in old Cairo, but whose world changed.
McDermott, Alice. After this (2006). This is a beautifully wrought novel of a middle-class Irish Catholic family in mid century America. We hear the voices of John and Mary Keene, and each of their four children. Each ordinary vignette shows us a unique character at a specific time. This intimate portrait is perceptive, lovingly amused and understanding of strengths and foibles amid the forces of luck and love, faith and friendship. A fine literary domestic novel.
Prose, Francine. Reading like a writer: a guide for people who love books and for those who want to write them (2006). Chapters include: 1. Close reading -- 2. Words -- 3. Sentences -- 4. Paragraphs -- 5. Narration -- 6. Character -- 7. Dialogue -- 8. Details -- 9. Gesture -- 10. Learning from Chekhov -- 11. Reading for courage: books to be read immediately. Not just for those who write, but truly for those who love to read this book leads to a greater appreciation of good writing and a long list of "must reads". Her examples of excellence are wide-ranging .
Lowenthal, Michael. Charity girl (2007). Historical novel set in Boston, 1918. Young Frieda Mintz has run away from home and is working at Jordan Marsh, in the lingerie department. She impulsively spends the night with a handsome soldier, only to contract a venereal disease and have her life changed by the committee to protect the morals of soldiers and incarcerate young women. Lots of period detail with a spunky heroine in this well-plotted, interesting novel.
Aciman, André. Call me by your name (2007). This sensual novel is a coming of age and erotic love story. A teenage boy falls in love with a visiting male graduate student while at his parents summer Italian Riviera place. Graphic descriptions of desire, the affair and the summer setting sets this novel sizzling into a poignant discovery of love that will affect both characters their whole lives.
Trillin, Calvin. About Alice (2006). A short, loving tribute-memoir to the author's wife. The author is a humorist, and this is his most heartfelt, poignant piece—first published in the New Yorker.
Appelfeld, Aron. All whom I have loved (2007). Nine year old Paul narrates his family story of Eastern European Jews in the 1930s. Though we know the Holocaust looms, we are taken back in time, when Paul's world is impacted by the divorce of his parents and his pull between them. His mother falls in love with a gentile. His father is alcoholic, volatile, brilliant, and withdrawn. We see the world through Paul's eyes. He is loved, but abandoned and his world is breaking apart. In this novel, memories are sensual, vivid and heartbreaking.
Westlake, Donald. What's so funny? (2007). This is the thirteenth comic caper novel featuring the hapless criminal John Dortmunder. An ex-cop blackmails Dortmunder into a heist of a 700 pound gold, jewel-encrusted chess set that's been in a midtown Manhattan bank vault for 60 years. Warring heirs, feckless teenagers, the quirky criminal gang, inept cops and robbers all have their part to play in this romp.
Danford, Natalie. Inheritance (2007). This novel alternates between the voices of Olivia, in present day and her immigrant Italian father, during his lifetime. Olivia seeks to understand her father and his past . After her father's death, Olivia finds a key and a deed to a home in Urbino, Italy and goes to discover the family and the life her father never talked about. Secrets and love stories of both generations in California and Italy.
Chabon, Michael. The Yiddish policemen's union (2007). In this noir and comic novel, Sitka, Alaska, rather than Israel has become the homeland after World War II. Your typical hard luck, hard drinking, hard boiled cop, with his half-Tlingit partner investigates the murder of a heroin-addicted possible Jewish messiah. A crazy world of Yiddishkeit.
Ferris, Joshua. Then we came to the end (2007). A contemporary comedy of manners set in a Chicago advertising agency. The tight-knit world of competition, love affairs, pranks, and above all gossip. With layoffs looming, this world of work, with personalities and relationships, quirky and familiar deals with life. A comic satire that also captures the humanity, complexity and weirdness of one's fellow workers.
Englander, Nathan. The Ministry of Special Cases (2007). This first novel is set in 1976 in Argentina during its "dirty war" of kidnappings and disappearances. The story centers on a Jewish father, mother and college age son, who disappears. The convincing voices of the characters, their personal dilemmas and relationships are poignantly funny and heartbreaking. This political novel feels intensely personal.
Leon, Donna. Suffer the little children (2007). The sixteenth novel in a mystery series featuring a good hearted Venetian policeman. There is a baby snatching, a police raid, fraud among doctors and pharmacists, illegal adoption, and a wonderfully human mixture of politics, ethics, morality and judgments. You care about the characters and are glad to be in Venice.
McEwan, Ian. On Chesil Beach (2007). This novel focuses on a young, very much in love English couple that has grown up in the 1950s. A compelling portrait of a particular man and woman facing issues of class, sexuality and communication in an achingly tender rendition of a honeymoon night.
Rosalie's Picks from 2006
Spiotta, Dana. Eat the document (2006). In this novel an idealistic, political activist from the early 1970s recounts her life underground after a violent, gone-wrong political action. The focus shifts between time, characters and generations. The irony, hum