Viewing details of messages, sorted by time of last reply ("sticky messages" first)
"Paula" by Isabel Allende
I love her fiction (House of Spirits, Daughter of Fortune), but Isabel's "soul-baring memoir," Paula, left me cold. Maybe magical realism doesn't translate well into nonfiction. Or maybe there were just too many inconsistencies for my inner pedant.
I hauled my husband through a dark and frozen evening to hear Allende's lecture at the University. Attendance clearly exceeded expectations, and organizers bustled to set up chairs as the President gave his well-calibrated introduction. Then Isabel marched to the lectern, climbed up on a well-placed stool, and began to declaim. There is no denying the woman is lovely, and she spins a great yarn. My interest was piqued when she spoke of the book about her daughter’s death.
Paula is an autobiography addressed to Isabel’s daughter while she is in a coma, dying from mistreatment of porphyria. Isabel took care of her, dreamed about her, and let her go, over the course of a little over a year. The writing is lyrical, interesting, and at times incredibly sad. It offers an intriguing glimpse into Allende’s creative process, which apparently combines Spartan discipline with ritual and spiritualism. But the book lacks authenticity.
It is all about Isabel, which left me wondering whether she was using her daughter’s death as excuse to invent or reinvent her self? Is that what grief is, really? Anyway, the invented self didn’t ring true, Here’s Isabel, the passionate lover, the naive revolutionary hero, the internationally renowned writer, the hippie among Chile’s elite, the perfect step-mother (that’s where she lost me…). Somehow the memoir lacks that smidgen of humility that makes for connection.
Then there’s narrative truth. In her lecture, Isabel said after Paula’s death she was lost until her mother encouraged her to write about the grief. She said in the writing she learned to contain the grief and move on. But the book was written, and advertised, as a work completed while her daughter was dying. Context matters, and if the entire premise of the book is false… that and the final, magical realist scene where Paula drifts gently into the light while her mother communes with ancestors who have arrived to see her through. I do believe in spirits, but mine never show up as a group, on time, just when they’re needed. Paula, lovely as it is, just doesn’t ring true.
But that’s probably just me…or is it? Anybody else read this one?
I hauled my husband through a dark and frozen evening to hear Allende's lecture at the University. Attendance clearly exceeded expectations, and organizers bustled to set up chairs as the President gave his well-calibrated introduction. Then Isabel marched to the lectern, climbed up on a well-placed stool, and began to declaim. There is no denying the woman is lovely, and she spins a great yarn. My interest was piqued when she spoke of the book about her daughter’s death.
Paula is an autobiography addressed to Isabel’s daughter while she is in a coma, dying from mistreatment of porphyria. Isabel took care of her, dreamed about her, and let her go, over the course of a little over a year. The writing is lyrical, interesting, and at times incredibly sad. It offers an intriguing glimpse into Allende’s creative process, which apparently combines Spartan discipline with ritual and spiritualism. But the book lacks authenticity.
It is all about Isabel, which left me wondering whether she was using her daughter’s death as excuse to invent or reinvent her self? Is that what grief is, really? Anyway, the invented self didn’t ring true, Here’s Isabel, the passionate lover, the naive revolutionary hero, the internationally renowned writer, the hippie among Chile’s elite, the perfect step-mother (that’s where she lost me…). Somehow the memoir lacks that smidgen of humility that makes for connection.
Then there’s narrative truth. In her lecture, Isabel said after Paula’s death she was lost until her mother encouraged her to write about the grief. She said in the writing she learned to contain the grief and move on. But the book was written, and advertised, as a work completed while her daughter was dying. Context matters, and if the entire premise of the book is false… that and the final, magical realist scene where Paula drifts gently into the light while her mother communes with ancestors who have arrived to see her through. I do believe in spirits, but mine never show up as a group, on time, just when they’re needed. Paula, lovely as it is, just doesn’t ring true.
But that’s probably just me…or is it? Anybody else read this one?
Washington Post Best Books 2009
10 Best Books Overall
Fiction
AMERICAN RUST, by Philipp Meyer (Spiegel & Grau, $24.95). This powerful novel about two poor young men caught up in the murder of a homeless man scrapes beneath today's economic headlines to show us a community corroded by poverty and despair. -- Ron Charles
A GATE AT THE STAIRS, by Lorrie Moore (Knopf, $25.95). Profound reflections on marriage and parenthood, racism and terrorism, and especially the baffling, hilarious, brutal initiation to adult life. -- Ron Charles
THE MUSEUM OF INNOCENCE, by Orhan Pamuk, translated from the Turkish by Maureen Freely (Knopf, $28.95). Although it can be read as a simple romance, this is a richly complicated work. Masterfully translated, spellbindingly told, a resounding confirmation that Orhan Pamuk is one of the great novelists of his generation. -- Marie Arana
THE STALIN EPIGRAM, by Robert Littell (Simon & Schuster, $26). In what may be his finest novel, Littell dramatizes the horrific events that followed after the great Russian poet Osip Mandelstam wrote a 16-line epigram that attacked the all-powerful Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. -- Patrick Anderson
WOLF HALL, by Hilary Mantel (Henry Holt, $27). A brilliant portrait of a society in the throes of disorienting change, anchored by a penetrating character study of Henry VIII's formidable adviser Thomas Cromwell. -- Wendy Smith
Nonfiction
FAMILY PROPERTIES: Race, Real Estate, and the Exploitation of Black Urban America, by Beryl Satter (Metropolitan, $30). A penetrating examination of financial discrimination. The most important book yet written on the black freedom struggle in the urban North. -- David J. Garrow
HALF THE SKY: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn (Knopf, $27.95). Opens our eyes to an enormous humanitarian issue and does so with exquisitely crafted prose and sensationally interesting material. This is one of the most important books I have ever reviewed. -- Carolyn See
POPS: A Life of Louis Armstrong, by Terry Teachout (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $30). An exceptional biography of, in Teachout's lovely phrase, "a major-key artist." -- Louis Bayard
STITCHES: A Memoir, by David Small (Norton, $24.95). A shockingly candid illustrated memoir of one family's legacy of anger and repression and sadism. -- Michael Sims
A STRANGE EVENTFUL HISTORY: The Dramatic Lives of Ellen Terry, Henry Irving, and Their Remarkable Families, by Michael Holroyd (Farrar Straus Giroux, $40). A completely delicious and wickedly entertaining biography of Ellen Terry and Henry Irving, the queen and king of 19th-century English theater. -- Michael Dirda
Fiction
AMERICAN RUST, by Philipp Meyer (Spiegel & Grau, $24.95). This powerful novel about two poor young men caught up in the murder of a homeless man scrapes beneath today's economic headlines to show us a community corroded by poverty and despair. -- Ron Charles
A GATE AT THE STAIRS, by Lorrie Moore (Knopf, $25.95). Profound reflections on marriage and parenthood, racism and terrorism, and especially the baffling, hilarious, brutal initiation to adult life. -- Ron Charles
THE MUSEUM OF INNOCENCE, by Orhan Pamuk, translated from the Turkish by Maureen Freely (Knopf, $28.95). Although it can be read as a simple romance, this is a richly complicated work. Masterfully translated, spellbindingly told, a resounding confirmation that Orhan Pamuk is one of the great novelists of his generation. -- Marie Arana
THE STALIN EPIGRAM, by Robert Littell (Simon & Schuster, $26). In what may be his finest novel, Littell dramatizes the horrific events that followed after the great Russian poet Osip Mandelstam wrote a 16-line epigram that attacked the all-powerful Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. -- Patrick Anderson
WOLF HALL, by Hilary Mantel (Henry Holt, $27). A brilliant portrait of a society in the throes of disorienting change, anchored by a penetrating character study of Henry VIII's formidable adviser Thomas Cromwell. -- Wendy Smith
Nonfiction
FAMILY PROPERTIES: Race, Real Estate, and the Exploitation of Black Urban America, by Beryl Satter (Metropolitan, $30). A penetrating examination of financial discrimination. The most important book yet written on the black freedom struggle in the urban North. -- David J. Garrow
HALF THE SKY: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn (Knopf, $27.95). Opens our eyes to an enormous humanitarian issue and does so with exquisitely crafted prose and sensationally interesting material. This is one of the most important books I have ever reviewed. -- Carolyn See
POPS: A Life of Louis Armstrong, by Terry Teachout (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $30). An exceptional biography of, in Teachout's lovely phrase, "a major-key artist." -- Louis Bayard
STITCHES: A Memoir, by David Small (Norton, $24.95). A shockingly candid illustrated memoir of one family's legacy of anger and repression and sadism. -- Michael Sims
A STRANGE EVENTFUL HISTORY: The Dramatic Lives of Ellen Terry, Henry Irving, and Their Remarkable Families, by Michael Holroyd (Farrar Straus Giroux, $40). A completely delicious and wickedly entertaining biography of Ellen Terry and Henry Irving, the queen and king of 19th-century English theater. -- Michael Dirda
Best Books of 2009 and Decade from Salon.com
The best nonfiction books of 2009
True stories about science, art, crime and American history
By Laura Miller
Dec. 08, 2009 |
It's been a rocky year for the book business, what with price wars among the major discount retailers, the byzantine provisions of the Google Books settlement and an unceasing drumbeat of proclamations that the publishing industry is rendering itself obsolete. At the same time, new reading apps introduced for the iPhone outnumbered games for the first time this fall, and the manufacturers of e-readers all report that the devices are selling like hotcakes.
Amid all this speculation about the future of publishing, one thing has remained constant: Authors are still writing great books. Today, Salon presents our list of the five best works of nonfiction published in 2009. Tune in tomorrow to learn our choices for best fiction, and on Thursday, we'll publish our list of the 10 best books of the decade.
"Somewhere Towards the End" by Diana Athill
Bookstores are overflowing with memoirs about childhood, adolescence, the romantic misadventures of early adulthood and the trials of parenting. But what does life look like from the tenth decade? Most of us do hope to find out, but are otherwise reluctant to think about it. This memoir is a heartening answer to the questions many are afraid to ask. Athill, a British editor, has led an unconventional life with unexpected results and harbors no expectations of an afterlife, yet the generosity, dignity, frankness and, yes, wisdom she has attained in her 90-some years are qualities everyone can aspire to in their own old age. You won't find the usual "inspirational" self-help nostrums in this slim book, but rather eloquent, honest, long-view ruminations on the meaning of love, sex, work, family and art. Athill doesn't preach; she doesn't have to. Just spending a few hours in her company is endlessly enlightening.
"Columbine" by Dave Cullen
The 1999 mass murder at Columbine High School in Colorado was an event at once freakish and quintessentially American. It was also a reporter's nightmare, with hundreds of eyewitnesses, conflicting accounts of what happened and why, law enforcement gaffes, groundless rumors and theories propagated by the media and, eventually, the dueling agendas of the survivors. Full disclosure: Dave Cullen did much of his initial reporting on Columbine for Salon, but this book, the definitive account of the shootings, takes the story much, much further. Meticulously reported, "Columbine" assembles all the substantiated facts, then forges them into a propulsive narrative, woven from nine strands corresponding to nine individuals, each of whom had his or her own distinct experience of that terrible day. Then Cullen delves beneath the events themselves (dispelling many myths in the process) to consider the killers' motives, carefully and persuasively arguing for his own
conclusions. Thirteen people lost their lives before the two teenage murderers committed suicide, and Cullen's thoughtful account pays them the tribute of the truth.
"The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science" by Richard Holmes
Holmes is best-known for his entrancing biographies of the Romantic poets. With "The Age of Wonder," he turns his pen to the visionary scientists of his favorite period -- the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th. It's a story of intrepid (not to mention lusty) explorers, tripping chemists and eccentric stargazers, set in a time when the discovery of a new planet (Uranus, by the master astronomer William Herschel and his sister Caroline) filled people with both wonder and dread -- an emotional cocktail otherwise known as the Romantic sublime. For a few decades, poets and scientists felt they were united in a journey that linked empirical discovery with the boundless scope of the imagination. Holmes captures the heady mood of the era, moving sinuously from Tahiti, to the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, to the ballooning exploits of the Montgolfier brothers to the African ordeals of Mungo Park, with cameo appearances by the likes of
Coleridge and Byron. Seldom have science and art been so gloriously married.
"Tall Man: The Death of Doomadgee" By Chloe Hooper
An utterly riveting combination of true crime, courtroom drama and social exposé, Hooper's exquisitely written book details the 2004 death of an aboriginal man while in the custody of Australian police, and that tragedy's harrowing aftermath. The setting is Palm Island on the Great Barrier Reef, a one-time paradise that for 50 years was Australia's Australia, a "tropical gulag" where uppity Aborigines were sent when they objected to the appalling treatment they received at the hands of the state. With spare, sure strokes, Hooper paints a situation that is anything but clear-cut: The material evidence was damning, but the cop accused was known for his services to the community, and many of the witnesses against him were drunk and susceptible to social pressures. Hooper, a novelist enlisted by the dead man's family and their crusading lawyer, had only the sketchiest knowledge of her nation's treatment of its indigenous people when she began the book; for
an American, reading about it is a lot like looking at our own country's troubled racial history through a refracted, yet illuminating lens.
"A New Literary History of America" by Greil Marcus and Werner Sollors, eds.
Granted, this collection of 200 short essays is so wide-ranging (with entries lighting on everything from Mark Twain and Emily Dickinson to the Winchester rifle, Alcoholics Anonymous and "Deep Throat") that it might have been better titled "The New Cultural History of America," but it's so vast, inquisitive and richly surprising than any minor irregularity in labeling must be instantly forgiven. Neither reference nor criticism, neither history nor treatise, this volume is a genre-defying, transcendent fusion of them all, a treasury to keep by your bedside. Read an installment every night and end the year with a much deeper understanding of the exhilarating and heartbreaking nation it chronicles. Inevitable, necessary and profoundly welcome.
True stories about science, art, crime and American history
By Laura Miller
Dec. 08, 2009 |
It's been a rocky year for the book business, what with price wars among the major discount retailers, the byzantine provisions of the Google Books settlement and an unceasing drumbeat of proclamations that the publishing industry is rendering itself obsolete. At the same time, new reading apps introduced for the iPhone outnumbered games for the first time this fall, and the manufacturers of e-readers all report that the devices are selling like hotcakes.
Amid all this speculation about the future of publishing, one thing has remained constant: Authors are still writing great books. Today, Salon presents our list of the five best works of nonfiction published in 2009. Tune in tomorrow to learn our choices for best fiction, and on Thursday, we'll publish our list of the 10 best books of the decade.
"Somewhere Towards the End" by Diana Athill
Bookstores are overflowing with memoirs about childhood, adolescence, the romantic misadventures of early adulthood and the trials of parenting. But what does life look like from the tenth decade? Most of us do hope to find out, but are otherwise reluctant to think about it. This memoir is a heartening answer to the questions many are afraid to ask. Athill, a British editor, has led an unconventional life with unexpected results and harbors no expectations of an afterlife, yet the generosity, dignity, frankness and, yes, wisdom she has attained in her 90-some years are qualities everyone can aspire to in their own old age. You won't find the usual "inspirational" self-help nostrums in this slim book, but rather eloquent, honest, long-view ruminations on the meaning of love, sex, work, family and art. Athill doesn't preach; she doesn't have to. Just spending a few hours in her company is endlessly enlightening.
"Columbine" by Dave Cullen
The 1999 mass murder at Columbine High School in Colorado was an event at once freakish and quintessentially American. It was also a reporter's nightmare, with hundreds of eyewitnesses, conflicting accounts of what happened and why, law enforcement gaffes, groundless rumors and theories propagated by the media and, eventually, the dueling agendas of the survivors. Full disclosure: Dave Cullen did much of his initial reporting on Columbine for Salon, but this book, the definitive account of the shootings, takes the story much, much further. Meticulously reported, "Columbine" assembles all the substantiated facts, then forges them into a propulsive narrative, woven from nine strands corresponding to nine individuals, each of whom had his or her own distinct experience of that terrible day. Then Cullen delves beneath the events themselves (dispelling many myths in the process) to consider the killers' motives, carefully and persuasively arguing for his own
conclusions. Thirteen people lost their lives before the two teenage murderers committed suicide, and Cullen's thoughtful account pays them the tribute of the truth.
"The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science" by Richard Holmes
Holmes is best-known for his entrancing biographies of the Romantic poets. With "The Age of Wonder," he turns his pen to the visionary scientists of his favorite period -- the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th. It's a story of intrepid (not to mention lusty) explorers, tripping chemists and eccentric stargazers, set in a time when the discovery of a new planet (Uranus, by the master astronomer William Herschel and his sister Caroline) filled people with both wonder and dread -- an emotional cocktail otherwise known as the Romantic sublime. For a few decades, poets and scientists felt they were united in a journey that linked empirical discovery with the boundless scope of the imagination. Holmes captures the heady mood of the era, moving sinuously from Tahiti, to the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, to the ballooning exploits of the Montgolfier brothers to the African ordeals of Mungo Park, with cameo appearances by the likes of
Coleridge and Byron. Seldom have science and art been so gloriously married.
"Tall Man: The Death of Doomadgee" By Chloe Hooper
An utterly riveting combination of true crime, courtroom drama and social exposé, Hooper's exquisitely written book details the 2004 death of an aboriginal man while in the custody of Australian police, and that tragedy's harrowing aftermath. The setting is Palm Island on the Great Barrier Reef, a one-time paradise that for 50 years was Australia's Australia, a "tropical gulag" where uppity Aborigines were sent when they objected to the appalling treatment they received at the hands of the state. With spare, sure strokes, Hooper paints a situation that is anything but clear-cut: The material evidence was damning, but the cop accused was known for his services to the community, and many of the witnesses against him were drunk and susceptible to social pressures. Hooper, a novelist enlisted by the dead man's family and their crusading lawyer, had only the sketchiest knowledge of her nation's treatment of its indigenous people when she began the book; for
an American, reading about it is a lot like looking at our own country's troubled racial history through a refracted, yet illuminating lens.
"A New Literary History of America" by Greil Marcus and Werner Sollors, eds.
Granted, this collection of 200 short essays is so wide-ranging (with entries lighting on everything from Mark Twain and Emily Dickinson to the Winchester rifle, Alcoholics Anonymous and "Deep Throat") that it might have been better titled "The New Cultural History of America," but it's so vast, inquisitive and richly surprising than any minor irregularity in labeling must be instantly forgiven. Neither reference nor criticism, neither history nor treatise, this volume is a genre-defying, transcendent fusion of them all, a treasury to keep by your bedside. Read an installment every night and end the year with a much deeper understanding of the exhilarating and heartbreaking nation it chronicles. Inevitable, necessary and profoundly welcome.
Bryant & May on the Loose...
I picked up this book yesterday, via ILL, and started it last night in bed. Must have been really tired, cause all I remember reading is a little introductory blurb at the beginning. I know I read a few regular pages, but for the life of me, I have absolutely no memory of them... sigh.... anyway, somebody here recommended the book, I think, and I know I saw a review in the newspaper. When I picked up the book, the staffer said she had read all of them in the series and just loved them. She said she was going to put her name on the list for this one. I said, reminding her, that she would need to order it through ILL as their library didn't have it. :x She said oh duh, and wondered why not... so, guess she's going to check into that.
Anyway, I'll let you know what I think about the book. Gonna have to read in the daytime, though, I guess. LOL
Anyway, I'll let you know what I think about the book. Gonna have to read in the daytime, though, I guess. LOL
Library Bonanza
Why do those requested books come in all at once? I have an abundance of reading riches - where to start?
"The Gift of an Ordinary Day" by Katrina Kenison
"Mennonite in a little black dress" by Rhoda Janzen
"Stones into Schools" by Greg Mortenson (author of "Three Cups of Tea")
And two more that look VERY interesting...
"It's Not that I'm Bitter... or How I learned to stop worrying about visible panty lines and conquered the world" by Gina Barreca and
"My Third Husband will be a Dog" by Lisa Scottoline
I think I am guaranteed some laughs with the last two!
Hope I can finish them before "Kindred in Death" comes in (#3 on the list now)
Wonder if I'll get the pre-Christmas cleaning done...or just read?!
"The Gift of an Ordinary Day" by Katrina Kenison
"Mennonite in a little black dress" by Rhoda Janzen
"Stones into Schools" by Greg Mortenson (author of "Three Cups of Tea")
And two more that look VERY interesting...
"It's Not that I'm Bitter... or How I learned to stop worrying about visible panty lines and conquered the world" by Gina Barreca and
"My Third Husband will be a Dog" by Lisa Scottoline
I think I am guaranteed some laughs with the last two!
Hope I can finish them before "Kindred in Death" comes in (#3 on the list now)
Wonder if I'll get the pre-Christmas cleaning done...or just read?!
posted
by midwife228 
bonjour all happy to have found you
Thank you for the o.k. to join the reading group, I don't quite understand the email invite, but its fine. I am reading or should say I'm obsessed with Diana Gabaldon's
'Outlander' series. Just finishing the 5th book...This was in the sci-fi section on Amazon but the only thing about it that qualifies it as sci-fi is a bit of time travel. I am learning a lot of ancient scottish history, which I love. Her incredible amount of research, leaves me in awe. Are there other bookaholics that have inner (closet) desires to be writers? I would surely nominate this author as setting a standard. Well, thats all i have to share for now Hope all are having a wonderful holiday so far.
'Outlander' series. Just finishing the 5th book...This was in the sci-fi section on Amazon but the only thing about it that qualifies it as sci-fi is a bit of time travel. I am learning a lot of ancient scottish history, which I love. Her incredible amount of research, leaves me in awe. Are there other bookaholics that have inner (closet) desires to be writers? I would surely nominate this author as setting a standard. Well, thats all i have to share for now Hope all are having a wonderful holiday so far.
posted
by Debra R.
Gifts of War
No, this book is not about how Haliburton struck it rich. It is an excellent read about love and the complications war can bring to it. It is written by Mackenzie Ford, which is a nom de plume of a well known and respected historian who lives in London who's books previously were all non-fiction and published in 17 languages with one voted by Time magazine as one of the 10 best of 2006. I have no idea of his ( or her ) real name but as a first venture into fiction I can only hope it won't be the last. It takes place in the first World War with it's no-mans land and valiant nurses contrasted to the peaceful idyll of rural England. A love story with a ticking time bomb at it's heart. I grabbed this book at random in the library and besides being pleasantly surprised I wondered if anyone else here has read it. If not do try.
Mike(Blorno)
Mike(Blorno)
Publishers Weekly Best Books 2009
PW Top 10
Cheever: A Life
Blake Bailey (Knopf)
Bailey, who was given access to the journals Cheever kept throughout his life, shines a new light on Cheever's literary output, making possible a fresh reappraisal of his achievement. In addition, Bailey offers up juicy, appalling, hilarious and moving anecdotes with verve, sensitivity and perfect timing.
Await Your Reply
Dan Chaon (Ballantine)
Chaon was a National Book Award finalist for Among the Missing, and this gripping account of colliding fates, the shifty nature of identity in today's wired world and the limits of family is easily as good, if not better. It's a literary page-turner, a cunningly plotted and utterly unputdownable novel.
A Fiery Peace in a Cold War: Bernard Schriever and the Ultimate Weapon
Neil Sheehan (Random House)
The development of the ICBM as a key part of the cold war arsenal wasn't inevitable. In a splendidly reported and narrated account, Sheehan credits Air Force Gen. Bernard Schriever with the foresight and shrewdness to triumph over powerful Pentagon opponents and develop the crucial and terrifying weapon.
In Other Rooms, Other Wonders
Daniyal Mueenuddin (Norton)
An NBA finalist (we found him first), Mueenuddin delivers Pakistan through the stories of its people: yearning, struggling, plotting, in a heartbreaking story collection that is specific and universal all at the same time.
Big Machine
Victor LaValle (Spiegel & Grau)
LaValle's brilliant second novel is unlike anything else out there: Ricky Rice, an ex-junkie African-American bus station porter, gets sucked into the bizarre machinations of a rural Vermont cult dedicated to studying “The Voice.” The narrator is blisteringly funny in chronicling his bizarre quest, providing both a blazing story and an astute commentary on race.
The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science
Richard Holmes (Pantheon)
In a thrilling narrative of scientific discovery and the spirit of an age, Holmes illustrates how the great scientists of Britain's romantic era gripped the imaginations of their contemporaries and forever changed our understanding of the universe and our place within it.
Stitches
David Small (Norton)
A graphic novel to bring us all back to comics, Small's account of his terrifying childhood is amazing. The drawings of his parents and the small suffering boy who doesn't quite understand until much, much later will pull you along panel by panel and tear your heart out.
Shop Class as Soulcraft
Matthew B. Crawford (Penguin Press)
Philosopher and motorcycle mechanic Crawford makes a brilliant case for the intellectual satisfactions of working with one's hands—and why white-collar work is the assembly line of the new millennium. Crawford is catholic in his tastes (references range from Aristophanes to Dilbert), unsentimental and irresistible as he extols the virtues of “knowing how to do one thing really well.”
Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi
Geoff Dyer (Pantheon)
Dyer creates an aging hipster grinding it out as a freelance journalist who pursues the girl instead of the story: covering the Biennale. Then, depending on your point of view, he either loses or finds himself when he's sent to Varanasi. Dyer has many books to recommend him, but all you need is angst-ridden Jeff: funny, frank and utterly charming, and if you haven't walked in his shoes, you'll wish you had.
Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon
David Grann (Doubleday)
In this classic adventure tale, New Yorker writer Grann—who gets winded climbing the stairs of his New York City walkup—follows in the footsteps of early–20th-century Amazon jungle explorer Percy Fawcett, who disappeared along with his son on a 1925 expedition. Grann expertly and energetically weaves the story of Fawcett's explorations with that of his own.
Cheever: A Life
Blake Bailey (Knopf)
Bailey, who was given access to the journals Cheever kept throughout his life, shines a new light on Cheever's literary output, making possible a fresh reappraisal of his achievement. In addition, Bailey offers up juicy, appalling, hilarious and moving anecdotes with verve, sensitivity and perfect timing.
Await Your Reply
Dan Chaon (Ballantine)
Chaon was a National Book Award finalist for Among the Missing, and this gripping account of colliding fates, the shifty nature of identity in today's wired world and the limits of family is easily as good, if not better. It's a literary page-turner, a cunningly plotted and utterly unputdownable novel.
A Fiery Peace in a Cold War: Bernard Schriever and the Ultimate Weapon
Neil Sheehan (Random House)
The development of the ICBM as a key part of the cold war arsenal wasn't inevitable. In a splendidly reported and narrated account, Sheehan credits Air Force Gen. Bernard Schriever with the foresight and shrewdness to triumph over powerful Pentagon opponents and develop the crucial and terrifying weapon.
In Other Rooms, Other Wonders
Daniyal Mueenuddin (Norton)
An NBA finalist (we found him first), Mueenuddin delivers Pakistan through the stories of its people: yearning, struggling, plotting, in a heartbreaking story collection that is specific and universal all at the same time.
Big Machine
Victor LaValle (Spiegel & Grau)
LaValle's brilliant second novel is unlike anything else out there: Ricky Rice, an ex-junkie African-American bus station porter, gets sucked into the bizarre machinations of a rural Vermont cult dedicated to studying “The Voice.” The narrator is blisteringly funny in chronicling his bizarre quest, providing both a blazing story and an astute commentary on race.
The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science
Richard Holmes (Pantheon)
In a thrilling narrative of scientific discovery and the spirit of an age, Holmes illustrates how the great scientists of Britain's romantic era gripped the imaginations of their contemporaries and forever changed our understanding of the universe and our place within it.
Stitches
David Small (Norton)
A graphic novel to bring us all back to comics, Small's account of his terrifying childhood is amazing. The drawings of his parents and the small suffering boy who doesn't quite understand until much, much later will pull you along panel by panel and tear your heart out.
Shop Class as Soulcraft
Matthew B. Crawford (Penguin Press)
Philosopher and motorcycle mechanic Crawford makes a brilliant case for the intellectual satisfactions of working with one's hands—and why white-collar work is the assembly line of the new millennium. Crawford is catholic in his tastes (references range from Aristophanes to Dilbert), unsentimental and irresistible as he extols the virtues of “knowing how to do one thing really well.”
Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi
Geoff Dyer (Pantheon)
Dyer creates an aging hipster grinding it out as a freelance journalist who pursues the girl instead of the story: covering the Biennale. Then, depending on your point of view, he either loses or finds himself when he's sent to Varanasi. Dyer has many books to recommend him, but all you need is angst-ridden Jeff: funny, frank and utterly charming, and if you haven't walked in his shoes, you'll wish you had.
Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon
David Grann (Doubleday)
In this classic adventure tale, New Yorker writer Grann—who gets winded climbing the stairs of his New York City walkup—follows in the footsteps of early–20th-century Amazon jungle explorer Percy Fawcett, who disappeared along with his son on a 1925 expedition. Grann expertly and energetically weaves the story of Fawcett's explorations with that of his own.
