Best New Books of 2012: Janet L.’s Picks

What do a clerk in a 24-hour bookstore, a snake-handling faith healer, a man walking 500 miles to visit a sick friend, a hiker on the Pacific Crest Trail and Richard Burton have in common? (And it doesn’t involve marrying Elizabeth Taylor.) Rather, they all figure somehow in my five favorite books of 2012. My reading tastes are eclectic, but I read more literary fiction and mysteries than anything else. Language, atmosphere, setting, and believable characters are all important to me.  – Janet L.

A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash
Marshall, North Carolina, has a new church, the River Road Church of Christ in Signs Following. It’s led by a charismatic preacher, Carson Chambliss, a man with a talent for snake handling. Stump Hall, a young autistic boy, witnesses something at the church that leads to tragedy. Sheriff Clem Barefield is determined to find out what happened, no matter what the consequences. This is Cash’s debut novel and it’s a beauty; gorgeous writing, believable characters and gothic overtones. Recommended for readers of Ron Rash, John Hart and Tom Franklin.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
Harold Fry is surprised to receive a letter from Queenie Hennessey, who is seriously ill and has written to say goodbye. They were friends once, but parted in strained circumstances. Mild mannered Harold is so shocked by this news he behaves spontaneously and begins a 500 mile journey by foot to say goodbye to Queenie, convinced she will not die as long as he is walking. Recommended for readers of Anne Tyler, Elizabeth Berg and Anna Quindlen.

Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
I adored this book. It has a likeable narrator, Clay Jannon, who clerks in a mysterious bookshop run by the fascinating Mr. Penumbra. The theme of Old Knowledge (books) vs. Internet knowledge allows the author to slip in scenes at Google, a museum dedicated to knitting overrun by children, arcane information about fonts, and a computer whiz who made a fortune creating realistic 3-D versions of breasts. This book is fun. It’s the kind of book that made a reader of me, the kind of book that keeps me reading, the kind of book I can’t wait to tell people about. Recommended for readers of Jasper Fforde and Terry Pratchett.

Wild by Cheryl Strayed
Hunched under a too heavy backpack quickly nicknamed Monster, Cheryl Strayed begins a real life journey along the Pacific Crest Trail that is spiritual as well as physical. Her plans for her hike are soon revealed as inadequate (who knew water weighed so much?) and she must improvise as she goes along—much as we all have to adjust in life when our best laid plans go awry. I found Strayed’s account of her hike riveting, profound, hilarious and suspenseful. Recommended for readers of Jeannette Walls, Jon Krakauer and Dave Eggers.

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter
It’s 1962 and Pasquale Tursi, owner of the Hotel Adequate View in Porto Vergogna, Italy, is immediately smitten by Dee Moray, an American starlet who arrives at his hotel fresh from the set of the movie Cleopatra. Their story (with a supporting appearance from Richard Burton) connects to present day Hollywood and the career of Claire, assistant to legendary producer Michael Deane. Walter creates a truly romantic story that underscores his theme of how life and art intersect.

Best New Books of 2012: Sarah K.’s Picks

I am an eclectic reader, reading across genres, with a focus on literary craft and vivid characters. I read to be transported. Below are five of my favorites from 2012. All of them were compelling and were either hard to put down, played with new forms of fiction, or left a lasting impression. Enjoy!  – Sarah K.

The Diviners by Libba Bray
It’s 1926, and Evie O’Neill is thrilled when her parents send her to New York City after she sparks scandal in her small town using her hidden gift of reading objects. However, her plans for a free-wheeling flapper lifestyle are dampened by her living situation at her Uncle Will’s museum of the occult, and the discovery that a supernatural serial killer, Naughty John is on the loose. As the killer gains power, Evie realizes that her secret gift may be the key in stopping Naughty John from striking again.

NW by Zadie Smith
Using altering perspective and shifts in tone and style, NW follows the intertwining lives of four former classmates who once lived in a housing project in northwest London. Leah, Felix, Natalie (née Keisha), and Nathan represent the intersections of class and culture and the transformations one makes through life. Smith is also concerned with the movements of time and place, the role of memory and the constraints of identity, and uses experimental prose forms to explore the nature of her characters in new and exciting ways.

The Yard by Alex Grecian
Reeling from the failure to solve the Jack the Ripper murders, Scotland Yard’s newly formed “Murder Squad” suffers another setback when they find one of their own detectives stuffed into a trunk. Newly hired constable Walter Day must overcome his own self-doubt and the derision of greater London to find the killer. With the help of forensic specialist, Dr. Bernard Kingsley, Day explores the darker corners of Victorian England to solve the crime.

This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz
When it comes to women, Yunior is a feckless connoisseur, constantly sinking relationships though his cheating despite his best intentions. These nine interlocking stories follow Junior though his romantic travails and his turbulent relationships with his mother and older brother, who is even more of a Don Juan than Yunior. Diaz’s lively prose, fabulous descriptions and clear love for his characters despite their flaws make this book a must-read.

When I Was a Child I Read Books by Marilynne Robinson
Marilynne Robinson is probably best known for her novels Housekeeping, Gilead, and Home, she is also an adept essay writer. Though not a light read, When I Was a Child… is a satisfying exploration of the intersections between solitude and community, faith and politics beyond simple polemic. Robinson’s essays are wide-ranging in topic from the nature of austerity to the power of older hymns, and present provocative ideas such as, “community…consists very largely of imaginative love for people we do not know….”

Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens

Little Dorrit isn’t like the other Dickens novels I’ve read (Great Expectations, David Copperfield, and A Christmas Carol).  It differs in two major ways. First, this book centers around a female character, the Little Dorrit of the title.  And second, one of the main plot lines is a possible romance between Little Dorrit and Arthur Clennam, the main male character. These two aspects of the book explain why I liked it so much. Sure, there were parts of this 850-page tome that held little interest for me, but we always returned, eventually, to Little Dorrit and/or Arthur.

Many people refer to Little Dorrit as “the one about debtors’ prison”. That’s because Little Dorrit (her first name is Amy, but few people use it) was born and raised in a London debtors’ prison where her father has been imprisoned for over 20 years.  Her mother is dead and so now Little Dorrit considers it her duty and her pleasure to look after her father, who is perfectly happy to let her make all kinds of sacrifices for him.  Meanwhile, Arthur has returned from many years abroad, and he meets Little Dorrit at his mother’s house, where she works as a seamstress.  Arthur takes a friendly interest in Little Dorrit, and the plot begins to move. Of course, there are lots of other characters and lots of other plot lines.  There’s Pet Meagles, the beautiful young woman who Arthur tries not to fall in love with since she’s in love with someone else. There’s the evil  Rigaud, who keeps popping up to complicate the lives of everyone he comes into contact with, especially Arthur’s cold, cruel mother.  There’s the paranoid Miss Wade, who is connected to the Meagles family and to Rigaud, and perhaps to Mrs. Clennam as well.

Oh, there are lots more, some comic and some tragic. Dickens knows how to develop characters and how to weave a compelling story. Little Dorrit is one of his best and most popular books, so if you’ve been considering reading more Dickens you might want to give this one a try.

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Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Sijie Dai

There are two kinds of good books: those that leave you feeling satisfied and those that leave you wondering. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Sijie Dai is one of those that leaves you wondering.

Set during the Cultural Revolution of mid-twentieth century China, the book chronicles the lives of two Chinese youths who are sent from the city to a mountain village to begin the process of “re-education,” Chairman Mao’s attempt to purge young intellectuals of their bourgeois ideas and reform them into good Communists. They spend most of their time doing back-breaking labor under the eye of the sadistic village headman. During one of their rare holidays, they meet the young daughter of a tailor in a neighboring village. Gentle, unsophisticated, full of her own native wisdom, and intoxicatingly beautiful, the little Chinese seamstress stirs romantic longings in both the callow youths, and they vie for her attentions in their different ways.

Visits to the little seamstress give their lives new meaning, but a second obsession takes hold of them when they discover a cache of Western literature unbelievably secreted away in these remote mountains. Books of all sorts, except the most dry scientific and political ones, had been banned since the time of Mao, so this was an incredible treasure. Reading these books and sharing them with others they dared to trust makes their interminably boring and brutal lives more tolerable.

The little Chinese seamstress is of course among the first with whom they share their treasures, and she listens wide-eyed and open-mouthed, drinking it all in. The effects of these new ideas lead to a dramatic turn in the novel and leave the reader wondering: is it always good to make the innocent wise? What makes knowledge a good thing, and what prevents it from harming us?

This novel is among the book club kits available in our library system, and its open-endedness makes it a good choice. I am greatly looking forward to discussing it with my book club and finding out what the other members think about the fate of the little Chinese seamstress.

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Say Nice Things About Detroit by Scott Lasser

OK, I’ll say it up front: I was born in Detroit, so this title piqued my interest right away. In his spare little gem, Lasser has given us a snapshot of today’s down at the mouth, but not completely down and out, Detroit. David Halpert, our hero, though from Detroit, lived in Colorado until the tragic death of his young son and subsequent failure of his marriage, followed by his father’s call to come home because of his mother’s mental decline. A very decent sort of fellow, David visits and decides to “come home.” At the same time, his high school girlfriend Natalie and her brother Dirk, retired FBI, are gunned down in Dirk’s Mercedes in a not so nice area of Detroit. David contacts Natalie and Dirk’s mother to express his sympathy and meets the younger sister, Carolyn, home for the funeral from Los Angeles. Seems a lot of people leave Detroit as soon as possible.
Carolyn has her own story of a loveless marriage held together for the sake of her young son. The attraction between David and Carolyn is real, but tentative on her part because of her married state. This story has lovely vignettes of the relationships between David and his father, a gruff working class man, and Carolyn and her mother, German born and first married to a black man, Dirk’s father, and later to the doctor/father of the sisters. These relationships evolve and other characters enter their lives, such as Marlon Booker, a young black man on the run from a drug dealer whose profit he skimmed.
Admirers of tight writing such as Stewart O’Nan’s and John Steinbeck’s will enjoy this novel that doesn’t shy away from street grittiness, drugs, and, from an outsider’s view, almost futile lives of some citizens, yet in a few words portrays inner feelings of both black and white characters. These Detroiters each have a story, dreams, hopes, and once in a while the opportunity to start over right. Say Nice Things about Detroit was a must-read for me, but I recommend it highly if you appreciate contemporary urban American settings and a fast, but thoughtful, read.

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Greatest Hits: Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood

This week we’re featuring some of our “greatest hits” – the most popular Book-a-Day blog posts since we started this almost three years ago. Today’s is Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood, reviewed by Sarah K.

Living in the South, most of us are well acquainted with Southern Gothic authors (O’Conner, Faulkner, Williams), and the conventions of the genre (the grotesque, mental illness, and family secrets).  Likewise there is a subset of Canadian fiction called Southern Ontario Gothic, which deals with similar themes, usually within the context of dour propriety, social conventions, and stern Protestantism.  Think frigid cold versus steamy humidity.  One of the hallmarks of this genre is Alias Grace.

During 1843 in Upper Canada, Irish servant girl Grace Marks was convicted of murder for her role in the deaths of her employer, Thomas Kinnear, and his housekeeper, Nancy Montgomery, who was Kinnear’s lover at the time.  The circumstances of the murders were never fully understood, with Marks claiming at different times that she could not remember the events of the day, and that she was possessed by the spirit of a deceased friend*.  Both newspaper and personal accounts from the time were undecided if Marks was an unwitting accomplice or a diabolical mastermind.  Marks received a sentence of life in prison instead of hanging because of her age and gender.

In Alias Grace, Atwood takes the facts of the case and creates a fictionalized account of Marks’ life and the mystery surrounding her guilt or innocence.  The narrative alternates between Grace’s telling of her life and interviews with her alienist, Dr. Jordan, who is trying to discover Grace’s true character through a series of interviews.  Like the quilts that are a reoccurring image in the novel, Atwood pieces together a story that explores both the mores of the time and the fragmented nature of history, story, and truth.

*The Toronto Public Library has a digitized version of an account of the trial, which you can read here.

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Greatest Hits: As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

This week we’re featuring some of our “greatest hits” – the most popular Book-a-Day blog posts since we started this almost three years ago. Today’s is As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner, reviewed by Clare B.

Story telling is considered a Southern tradition, and perhaps one of the greatest of Southern storytellers is William Faulkner.  I often hear people say that Faulkner is too difficult to read.  He can be difficult. As I Lay Dying is certainly is not.

As the novel opens Addie Bundren is dying.  Outside her window, her son Cash is building her coffin.  Addie has had a difficult life.  Her husband is no count; her children are hardly better.  She has made her husband promise that he will bury her body in Jefferson, a neighboring town where she grew up.  This simple request is actually anything but simple.

Sons Jewel and Darl are away with the wagon, and return two days after Addie is dead.  Floods wash out two bridges, further delaying the trip.  Two days into the trip, an accident while they are attempting to ford the flooded river leaves Cash seriously injured and the mules dead.  In the mean time, buzzards are following them, and the smell of the Addie’s body is overwhelming.

As I Lay Dying is funny, horrifying and fascinating.  Each chapter is told in the voice of a different family member or friend.  We see this journey in the bewilderment of young Vardaman, who cannot understand his mother’s death; of Dewey Dell who is too absorbed in her own unplanned pregnancy to grieve, and Anse Bundren, whose main goal, besides burying his wife, is to buy false teeth.

I think the key to reading and enjoying Faulkner is to not think about it too much.   We read him in English class, and spend hours examining what he was trying to say.  Instead, perhaps, we should just read him.  Enjoy the language and loose ourselves in the humor, satire and train of thought.

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Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor

I have come to love southern gothic literature in the last few years. I think I needed life experience in order to truly appreciate the humor and the truth in it. For this reason, I have never been a big fan of Flannery O’Connor, until now. I recently read O’Connor’s novel Wise Blood. From the first chapter I became a fan. This is the story of Hazel Motes, a young man recently released from the Army and in search of a new life. His family is dead, and he is struggling to deny the faith he was raised under. He meets Asa Hawks and his daughter Lily Sabbath. Asa is an apparently blind street preacher, and Lily is searching for a better life for herself. Motes recognizes the truth about Hawks, and decides to prove himself a greater cynic, by creating his own “church”, The Church of Christ Without Christ.

There are only a few characters in the rich novel, but each one is searching for something that they believe Motes can give them. Enoch Emery, another lost soul, is sure that Motes is right, and he does all in his power to befriend him. Mrs. Flood, Mote’s landlady believes they can have a life together. Hoover Shoats wants to work with Motes to develop a money scam.

Early in Wise Blood, you know that all of these people are on a collision course, with Motes in the middle. There is simply no way this novel is going to end well. And yet, it is a thoughtful, compelling and lyrical novel you will not want to put down.

Wise Blood was O’Connor’s first novel, in her very small body of works. She died at age 39. One has to wonder what incredible characters she would have created had she lived and written longer.

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Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver

This week we’re featuring some of our favorite Audio Books, just in time for planning your summer road trips. You can also click the Audio Books tag at the bottom of this post or at the top of the tag cloud on the right hand side of our blog’s home page for more great audio book suggestions!

There’s nothing like a good traveling story to accompany a long summer road trip. And, if that story has fantastic literary merit, well, that’s an added bonus. One book that fits the bill is Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver. It follows the journeys of four main characters, Taylor Greer, her mother Alice Greer, Annawake Fourkiller, and Cash Stillwater. The stories of these characters and their friends, relations, and people they pick up along the way, are woven together in a far-reaching, close-touching story about family and home.

Taylor and her adopted daughter, Turtle, begin the novel on a road trip through the Grand Canyon. While visiting the Hoover Dam, Turtle sees a man fall off the edge into one of the drain pipes. After they finally convince local authorities to send a rescue team and the man is saved, Turtle and Taylor become overnight heroes. They even appear on Oprah and tell the world about Turtle’s unique beginnings. Several years earlier, Turtle was left with Taylor by an elderly woman, while Taylor was parked at a truck stop in the Cherokee Nation. Turtle had evidently suffered sexual abuse and would not speak even though she was about three years old. Enter Annawake Fourkiller, recently graduated attorney and member of the Cherokee Nation.

Annawake sees Taylor and Turtle on Oprah and questions Taylor about the legality of Turtle’s adoption, since Cherokee children cannot be adopted without the permission of the tribe. Feeling pressured by Annawake, Taylor runs away with Turtle and they are eventually accompanied by her mother, Alice, who has left her television-obsessed husband. They journey across the country, with no purpose other than keeping their family together. Meanwhile, in a seemingly unrelated subplot, Cash Stillwater’s boss at a touristy jewelry store in Wyoming commits suicide. This gives Cash a good enough reason to head home to the Cherokee Nation, where his mournful life just might find some meaning again.

I enjoyed this novel because it is wide-sweeping in its scope, but still manages to capture the very intimate meaning of family and belonging. Kingsolver’s characteristically powerful writing plus hearing the audio version, gave me a strong sense of truly knowing all of the characters, even secondary ones. As the plot lines thickened and the characters developed, I was entranced by the story and would sit a little longer in my car once I got where I was going, just so I could listen for a few more minutes. If you enjoy novels that explore the depths of character and weave lots of seemingly loose ends together into a satisfying conclusion, Pigs in Heaven will be a great read for you.

Pigs in Heaven is a sequel to The Bean Trees, a novel that tells the story Turtle’s extraordinary adoption and Taylor’s crash course in parenting.

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Howards End by E.M. Forster

Everything about English culture of the early 20th century shows up in this book. Differences in social class, the intellectual class versus the merchant class, illicit and proper love and a vivid plot keep the pages turning.

An impulsive act by Helen Schlegel and Paul Wilcox gets the Schlegel and Wilcox families off to a rocky beginning.

Margaret Schlegel, the main character, is a peacemaker and an intellectual, who has great love and respect for everyone. When Margaret Schlegel meets Mrs. Wilcox a chain of events is set in motion that alters the future for many people. Mrs. Wilcox soon dies and wills her beloved childhood home Howards End to Margaret on a scrap of paper. Margaret and her brother and sister have been living in a house that is about to be demolished and are looking for lodgings. They eventually rent Howards End. Henry Wilcox decides not to honor his wife’s wish, but eventually courts and marries Margaret, whose family is so completely different from his.

Henry Wilcox is a rich merchant, whose overbearing personality does not sit well with Helen, Margaret’s impulsive, passionate, romantic sister. Meanwhile, a poor young man named Leonard Bast has entered the picture and will have great influence upon the family. The interactions of all these elements and characters drive the book. Henry Wilcox’s past history and subsequent behavior has an unfortunate consequence in several lives.

This is a rich, complex book with much to say. If I had to choose a favorite book, this is it and it was made into a beautiful Merchant-Ivory film.

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