2book multi

by Emmie Stuart

“For most immigrants, moving to the new country is an act of faith. Even if you've heard stories of safety, opportunity, and prosperity, it's still a leap to remove yourself from your own language, people, and country. Your own history. What if the stories weren't true? What if you couldn't adapt? What if you weren't wanted in the new country?”—Nicola Yoon

Amidst the recent news headlines surrounding immigration and border laws, it’s easy to forget that many of these immigrants are children. As migrant children adjust to a new home, a new language and a new set of customs, they need books that authentically reflect and affirm their experiences and feelings. Equally important is the need for children born in the United States to gain small insights into life as an immigrant. These five stories of struggle and triumph, loneliness and connection, and isolation and belonging will spark classroom conversation, affirm migrant children’s feelings, and build empathy for those who are making a home in a new world.

Mustafa by Marie-Louise Gay

“Mustafa and his family traveled a very, very long way to get to their new county.” He dreams of his old country “full of smoke and fire and loud noises” and wakes up to find himself in a new country but, as him mom reminds him, “under the very same moon.” Mustafa ventures down into a neighborhood park and takes great joy in the green trees, bugs that remind him of jewels, and flowers that look like his grandmother’s teacups. He crosses paths with a girl and her cat but is intimidated when he can’t understand her words. As the weeks pass, Mustafa continues to visit the park taking delight in the changing seasons. One day he waves to a group of playing children, but they don’t notice prompting him to ask his mother, “am I invisible?” At last, the young girl with the cat succeeds in communicating with Mustafa and a new friendship is born. A gentle and honest story, Mustafa is accessible for children of all ages and a valuable read aloud for all classrooms.

• Creative Writing—Invite students to examine the title and dedication pages. They show Mustafa’s family with their belongings on their heads and backs as they board a ship that carries them to their new country. Ask to children to imagine moving to a new country and only being able to take a few possessions. After a brief class discussion let them journal about the items they would bring if they had to flee to a new country.

• Nature Walk—Mustafa loves to explore the park next to this apartment building. He takes great delight in things Americans take for granted—green grass and red birds hiding in trees. With their journals in hand, take your students outside for a nature walk and encourage them to look anew at the world around them. After 5-10 minutes of walking, stop and let children draw or write about the things they noticed “with their new eyes”. Mustafa sees flowers shaped like his grandmother’s pink teacups and others that look like dragon tongues. Encourage children to create metaphors for the things they find on the nature walk.

Saffron Ice Cream by Rashin Kheiriyeh

Rashin can’t wait for her first trip to an American beach. As she and her family make the trip from Brooklyn to Coney Island, Rashin reminisces about her trips to the Caspian Sea beach in Iran. Through her memories, readers will the understand that the differences between the two beaches are significant. In Iran, after a breakfast of halim, the family drives five hours to the beach where “big, long curtains divided the sea into two sections—one side for men to swim in and the other side for women.” On the subway headed to Coney Island, Rahsin misses her friend Azadeh and wonders if the sea in America will be as endless, blue, and beautiful as it is in Iran. When they arrive, Rashin’s homesickness reaches its peak and when she discovers the ice cream truck doesn’t carry saffron flavored ice cream, she begins to cry. A young girl behind her in line encourages Rashin to try chocolate crunch ice cream. The two girls become fast friends and Rashin has no problem following the Coney Island beach rule: To have fun, fun, fun. By focusing on a single experience, Saffron Ice Cream shows how very different daily experiences can be in a new country. The colorful illustrations and lighthearted prose make for an upbeat and relatable immigrant story.

• Venn Diagram—Saffron Ice Cream begs for a venn diagram. As a class, create a venn diagram comparing the Coney Island and Caspian Sea beaches. Be sure to leave enough room in the overlapping portion to list the ways the beaches are similar. Use this diagram to spark a conversation about similarities and differences between cultures. If you have migrant children in your class, let them talk about experiences and traditions they remember from their home country and how they are similar and different to those in the United States.

• Geography—Using a world map and Google Earth, locate Coney Island and the Caspian Sea. Let the children make observations comparing the two beaches. Show them Coney Island’s Stillwell train station as well. For many students in rural and suburban classrooms, riding a subway is a foreign experience.

• Different, but essentially the same—Young Rashin is homesick for Iran and her Caspian beach, but at the end of the book she understands that though the two beaches are different, the most important aspects (family, friendship) transcend cultures. In the past few years, I have discovered several strong picture books highlighting the differences and (more importantly) the similarities between cultures. Make these pictures books a part of your classroom for the entire year. Culture awareness and acceptance is a gift that will stay with children for the rest of their lives. My favorites include This Is How We Do It (Lamothe) Same, Same, But Different (Kostecki-Shaw), This is the Way We Go to School (Bauer), The Sandwich Swap (Al-Abdullah), Everybody Cooks Rice (Dooley), Mirror (Baker) and Around the World in a Bathtub: Bathing All Over the Globe (Bradford).

The Dress and the Girl by Camille Andros, illustrated by Julie Morstad

Beginning in Greece, “back when time seemed slower and life simpler, there was a dress. A dress much like many others, made for a girl by her mother.” The girl and the dress enjoy their life in Greece, but long for something “singular, stunning, or sensational.” They don’t wait long because one day their story changes and they board a ship headed for a new life in America. The dress is put in a trunk—a trunk that gets lost during the journey. The dress is separated from the girl for many years and travels the world searching for the girl. At long last, it comes to rest in a thrift store where the girl, now a mother herself, finds it and passes it along to her daughter. Showing the importance of family history, The Dress and the Girl is a simple story with magnificent illustrations recounting the journey to Ellis Island that was common for so many immigrants at the turn of the century.

• Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty—Peek under the book’s jacket at the cover. You will be greeted by a magnificent illustration of the Statue of Liberty as seen by immigrants as they disembark the ship. Take a virtual field trip to the Statue of Liberty National Park and let students view the statue from across the water. Zoom in closer and read the inscription at the base of the statue. Write it on the board or a piece of chart paper. After a class discussion, keep it hanging in your classroom to remind students that the United States is open to all people. My students also loved the live cam view located in the torch of the statue.

• Oral family history—The dress holds significance for the girl because it is a family heirloom and traveled with her from her home country of Greece. Use the story to launch an oral family history project. With the help and input of students, develop a short family history questionnaire for them to use with their parents, grandparents, or other relatives. One of the questions can be about treasured family heirlooms. Use this opportunity to teach and develop students’ interviewing and conversational skills. Let them practice interviewing each other before conducting a family interview.

• Book pairing—Read aloud one of my all-time favorite picture books, My Grandfather’s Coat by James Alyesworth and compare the two stories.

Ella and Monkey at Sea by Emilie Boon

Told through the eyes of a young girl and her stuffed monkey, Ella and Monkey at Sea is perfectly pitched for young children. The story opens with Ella hugging her grandmother, Oma, before boarding a ship bound for America. During the long journey across the ocean, Ella’s emotions are transferred to monkey. Monkey “wants his own bed at home,” he “misses Oma and dinners at home,” and “says no” when the other children ask him to play. Eventually, Ella moves through feelings of homesickness to feelings of hope and excitement for their new country. I read this simple yet effective story aloud to a group of kindergarten students and the empathy stirred by Ella’s honesty was evident on their young faces.

• Creative Writing—Ella’s emotions are transferred to her beloved stuffed monkey. Allow children time to share a special recent experience. Afterward, tell them to retell/write the story from the perspective of their most beloved stuffed friend.

• Art Therapy—When Ella is sad she colors a picture with “angry black,” “scared gray” and “cold blue.” At the end of the book, she colors a picture of a cheerful yellow sun. Discuss how colors reflect emotions. Put some soft music on and let children create their own feelings pictures. For more color and emotion books, be sure to read Niko Draws a Feeling (Chris Rackza) and My Blue Is Happy (Jessica Young).

Front Desk by Kelly Yang

Ten-year-old Mia Tang works the front desk at her parents' Calivista Motel. Life isn’t easy for Mia’s family, Chinese immigrants who have been in the United States for two years. Living in a room behind the motel’s office, they work around the clock serving the customers of the motel and ensuring that the customers are happy. The American dream seems anything but dreamy as the family battles several unfortunate events including an abusive robber, a broken washing machine and a stolen car. Equally hard are the cultural challenges and racism Mia faces at school. Raw and believable, Mia’s voice is strong making her struggles relatable for students who share her migrant experience and opens a window for students who have never felt the isolation and confusion that accompanies navigating a life in a new country.

• Struggles and Triumphs—Reflecting the story of most immigrants, Mia experiences many challenges as she adjusts to life in America. Because of her hard work and grit and the kindness of others she also experiences several triumphs. Before reading Front Desk, make a “Struggles & Triumphs” chart. Keep it easily accessible so that it can be updated at the conclusion of each read-aloud time.

• If I owned a motel—Mia dreams of being a writer, and toward the end of the story she enters an essay contest with an essay titled, “If I Owned a Motel.” Encourage children to design and plan their own motel or restaurant. Visit the websites of several family-owned businesses and discuss components of a small business including marketing, theme and customer service. Invite children to write their own essays and share their small business plans with the rest of the class.

These five stories of struggle and triumph, loneliness and connection, and isolation and belonging will spark classroom conversation, affirm migrant children’s feelings, and build empathy for those who are making a home in a new world.

Memoir, Nonfiction

Nonfiction Memoir

Let them entertain you

Feature by Linda M. Castellitto

by Linda M. Castellitto

Our society may adore celebrities, but we can’t know what really goes on in their hearts and minds unless they choose to tell us. These standout new entries in the crowded celebrity-memoir field are fascinating chronicles of lives spent answering Hollywood’s siren call.

Ellie Kemper’s biographical essay collection My Squirrel Days traces her path from suburban St. Louis, Missouri, to the titular lead in the acclaimed TV show “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.” Kemper loved performing from an early age, whether she was writing dramatic pieces for a beloved second-grade teacher or creating elaborate, often grueling, holiday shows with her siblings. “These shows took years off my life,” she writes. Kemper jokes about her neuroses and obsessions, but she doesn’t apologize—after all, her relentless perfectionism served her well when she used that drive to create a one-woman show that caught the eye of “Saturday Night Live.” She didn’t get the gig, but she did get a call from the creator of “The Office,” and her career blossomed from there. Kemper is open about her missteps, too, whether embarking on an unfortunate attempt at method acting (“Squirrel”) or falling on historian Doris Kearns Goodwin. My Squirrel Days takes readers up to the present, in which Kemper is a wife, new mom, show-lead and SoulCycle devotee. It’s a great read for comedy fans, thanks to a deft balance of life lessons and madcap goings-on, and it’s proof that hard work and optimism really can pay off.

AN EXAMINED LIFE
With roles like Gidget, Sybil, the Flying Nun and myriad others under her belt, Sally Field has been a household name since the 1960s, yet for the most part, she has lived a private life. But in her affecting and compelling memoir, In Pieces, Field shares with fans the truths, many of them painful, of her life. The book is framed by her relationship with her late mother, Margaret. “I wait for my mother to haunt me as she promised she would,” she writes. “This isn’t new, this longing I have for her.” In fact, she felt distant from her mother her whole life, the consequence of a painful secret Field held onto for decades. Field writes movingly about the loneliness she felt even while surrounded by family and colleagues. In Pieces also includes plenty of period details about how studios were run, auditions conducted and money paid (not to mention the perils of typecasting and endemic sexism). Readers will feel nervous—and then triumphant—right along with her. By book’s end, Field answers important questions for herself, gaining clarity from how the pieces fit together.

FEMINIST, FUNNY, FABULOUS
In her second essay collection, Everything’s Trash, But It’s Okay, fans will be happy to see that Phoebe Robinson is, to borrow an Oprah catchphrase, living her best life. She’s been in a movie (Netflix’s Ibiza), launched another podcast (WNYC’s “Sooo Many White Guys”), turned her “2 Dope Queens” podcast with Jessica Williams into HBO specials and hung out with the likes of Julia Roberts and Bono. That last one’s especially notable, because Robinson’s been carrying a torch for him (as devotedly noted in her first book, You Can’t Touch My Hair) for some time. Once they met, he was charmed, and now they’re doing charity projects together. Speaking of social activism, Robinson offers incisive and insightful cultural criticism in essays like, “Feminism, I Was Rooting for You,” which explains her frustration with today’s feminism (which, she notes, is mainly about “protecting the institution of white feminism”) and makes an unassailable case for allyship and inclusion. Whether sharing tales of misadventure or dating tips, Robinson is a top-notch storyteller who takes readers on a funny, memorable ride.

DEEP IS THEIR LOVE
Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman have been an adored celebrity couple for many years. With humor and delightful vulgarity, the two let readers eavesdrop on their conversations in The Greatest Love Story Ever Told: An Oral History. Although the book is composed mostly of transcripts, essays by Offerman and Mullally add variety, and there are photos, too, including cute baby pictures and stylish shots of the duo in various costumes. They dish on how they met and reflect on 18 years together through the lens of family, religion, music, art and the vagaries of fame, offering an earnest, insightful window into their relationship, past and present (though readers who don’t like transcripts may prefer an audio version). As a way to turn off work and reconnect, Mullally and Offerman recommend doing jigsaws together, and the book ends with a collection of triumphant photos of completed puzzles. From the looks of it, their beloved dogs get a kick out of it, too.

FAR FROM IDLE
In Always Look on the Bright Side of Life: A Sortabiography, writer/comedian/musician Eric Idle offers fans an excellent way to gear up for Monty Python’s 50th anniversary in 2019 via immersion in his own life story, along with his take on the members and memories of the comedy troupe. Idle starts at the beginning: “By coincidence, I was born on my birthday.” Specifically, in 1943 England. When he was a child, Idle’s widowed mother put him in an austere charitable boarding school for boys, where he lived until age 19. Despite the grimness of the place, Idle found comedy in dark moments. “Humor is a good defense against bullying,” after all, and “unhappiness is never forever.” That attitude—and his unflagging drive to create—has stayed with him (he’s 75 now) and informed his work in all its guises, and he’s certainly found lots to be happy about. He shares stories about fellow famous folk like George Harrison, Robin Williams, the Rolling Stones and the cast of Star Wars (all sometimes at the same parties). There are lots of concrete lessons for aspiring creators, too. It’s a fascinating, warmly told, often zany memoir of a life fully lived so far—with more fun sure to come.

This article was originally published in the October 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Fiction, Graphic Novels & Comics, Nonfiction

Nonfiction Fiction Graphic Novels & Comics

Read on—if you dare

Feature by Hilli Levin & Lily McLemore

by Hilli Levin, Lily McLemore

It’s officially the month to be spooky, and you can only watch so many classic horror reruns each year, so why not try a fresh, new story? From spine-tingling tales for the hard-to-scare to books with just a touch of terror, we’ve got the Halloween read for you.

Anthony Bourdain’s Hungry Ghosts
By Anthony Bourdain and Joel Rose

The guts of the tale: Before his death in June 2018, beloved bad-boy chef and comic lover Anthony Bourdain had wrapped up work on this comic anthology of tales of haunted chefs and bedeviled diners with his Get Jiro! collaborator and friend, Joel Rose. Filled with gruesome art from some of the comic world’s top horror artists and inspired by Japanese folklore, the collection is centered on a group of chefs who take turns telling increasingly horrifying tales of spirits like Hidarugami, the ravenous souls of those who starved to death, or Jikininki, ghouls who feast on the dead.

Bone-chilling quote: “There’s just something about horseflesh. I crave it.”

For fans of: The Tales from the Crypt and Haunt of Fear comic series or anyone interested in the legacy of Bourdain, whom Rose lovingly calls “the hungriest ghost of them all” in a dedication penned after the chef’s death.

Costume inspiration: Check out the glossary filled with legendary Japanese spirits like Yuki-Onna, a beautiful spirit with a deadly kiss.

Spook-o-meter:

Dracul
By Dacre Stoker and J.D. Barker

The guts of the tale: Dacre Stoker, the great-grandnephew of Bram Stoker, and established horror author J.D. Barker (The Fourth Monkey) have teamed up to pen this prequel of sorts to Dracula, the 1897 vampire novel that kicked off the still-fervent fascination with the Count. In keeping with the classic’s epistolary style, Dracul is written as journal entries and features Bram himself as the protagonist. This delightfully gothic tale is packed with gore and atmosphere.

Bone-chilling quote: “He smiled at me and tapped on the glass again with his fingernails. His nails were long and yellow, hideously so. Oh, and his teeth! . . . His lips were curled back like those of a snarling dog, and his teeth were like fangs. He licked at his lips and said my name. He said it so quietly, as if mouthing it, yet I heard him perfectly, as if he were right next to me.”

For fans of: Dracula by Bram Stoker (duh), The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova or Bellman & Black by Diane Setterfield.

Costume inspiration: This one’s obvious: Grab a cape and some plastic fangs!

Spook-o-meter:

The Witch of Willow Hall
By Hester Fox

The guts of the tale: Equal parts romantic and supernaturally chilling, Hester Fox’s sweeping tale is set in 1821 New England, two centuries after the infamous Salem witch trials. But it looks like the witches were real after all, and young Lydia Montrose has the lineage and burgeoning power to prove it. A creepy estate, juicy scandal, family secrets, ghosts and a handsome yet mysterious suitor make this a satisfying and quietly foreboding tale that never gets too dark.

Bone-chilling quote: “It’s a slow moan, a keening wail. The sound is so wretched that it’s the culmination of every lost soul and groan of cold wind that has ever swept the earth.”

For fans of: Deborah Harkness, Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman, Jane Eyre and “Charmed.”

Costume inspiration: A witch from the era of your choosing.

Spook-o-meter:

Llewellyn’s Little Book of Halloween
By Mickie Mueller

The guts of the tale: This little book is a history of Halloween, a party-planning inspiration and a book of charms all rolled into one. Mickie Mueller provides insight into Halloween’s origins, along with simple spells (sprinkle thyme in your shoes for courage), recipes and decor ideas that are perfect for your own gathering of spirits.

Bone-chilling quote: “Bats have been a longtime symbol of Halloween, and it’s not because they’re scary; I’ve met a few, and they’re really not.” (Which sounds exactly like something a bat disguised as a human would say!)

For fans of: All things Halloween!

Costume inspiration: Something classic, like a sheet-clad ghost.

Spook-o-meter:

Devil’s Day
By Andrew Michael Hurley

The guts of the tale: John thought he had escaped the superstitious ways of the wild English countryside. Yet when his grandfather dies, he is pulled back into his family’s tiny farming community, where strange things have been occurring. Has the devil slipped in among the flocks of sheep? Or has the devil always been among them? This atmospheric, eerie novel is perfect for a rainy night in.

Bone-chilling quote: “Days were late to lighten and quick to end and people began to die. The older folk first, coughing up their lungs in shreds like tomato skins, and then the children, burning with fever.”

For fans of: Wolf Winter by Cecilia Ekbäck, Burial Rites by Hannah Kent or Hurley’s previous book, The Loney.

Costume inspiration: A wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Spook-o-meter:

This article was originally published in the October 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Mystery

Mystery

Whodunit: More than a neighborhood private eye

Feature by Bruce Tierney

by Bruce Tierney

You know it’s going to be a bad day when you wake up amid a team of disgraced Abu Ghraib prison guards who have kidnapped you and are becoming significantly fed up with your unwillingness to answer their questions. The victim is Isaiah Quintabe, known in his California neighborhood by his initials, IQ. Wrecked is Joe Ide’s third novel featuring IQ, and it’s the first time IQ has a chance of expanding his business into a full-fledged private investigation agency. At any given time, IQ fields a number of cases, but the one that becomes central to Wrecked has to do with the machinations of a Blackwater- esque mercenary, a man with little in the way of scruples and lots in the way of sadistic behavior. Wrecked takes Ide’s unlikely hero into new territory, with foes that test his mettle in ways his previous adversaries could not even fathom, and with a possible love interest that exposes an entirely new facet of IQ’s character.

ALL FOR JUSTICE
V.I. Warshawski, like all of us, is not getting any younger. She is well past the age of dangling upside down in search of clues or doing fishtail burnouts in her V-8 Mustang to avoid getting shot, and certainly past the years when she should be treading across thin ice floes to keep a priceless artifact out of the hands of a ruthless billionaire. But in Sara Paretsky’s latest thriller, Shell Game, age seems a nonissue, as V.I.’s latest crusade leads her to engage in all these dangerous activities and more. Two cases weave in and out of the narrative: the first, a murder charge hanging over the beloved nephew of V.I.’s godmother, surgeon Lotty Herschel, involving a Syrian archaeological dig and a dissident immigrant poet on the lam from ICE; the second, the mysterious disappearance of V.I.’s niece following a Caribbean junket that turned sinister in ways that no travel brochure would suggest. As is usually the case with Paretsky’s novels, there is considerable social and political commentary, so if you are a capital-C Conservative, you might want to give some thought to how much you are willing to have your convictions challenged. Everyone else can revel in the superb pacing, the well-developed characters and the crisp dialogue from one of the most consistently excellent writers in the genre.

KIDNAPPING IN TAIWAN
Readers don’t have to wait long—not even to the end of page one—to get to the setup for Ed Lin’s latest Taipei Night Market mystery, 99 Ways to Die. There has been an abduction of a prominent businessman, who happens to be the father of protagonist Chen Jing-nan’s erstwhile classmate Peggy Lee (not the husky-voiced jazz singer Peggy Lee of “Fever” fame, but rather the youngest daughter in a family of Taiwanese aristocrats). The kidnappers’ ransom demands are not for money; instead, they want access to a computer chip, which Peggy Lee claims to know nothing about. But chances are good that Peggy Lee is playing for time and saving face in a society where face is everything. Jing-nan, for his part, is not someone you’d think of as a PI—he runs a popular food shop in a Taipei night market—but Peggy Lee is headstrong, and if she wants Jing-nan on the case, he has little choice but to assent. 99 Ways to Die is the third in the series and is the most fleshed out of the three. Ultimately, Lin’s books are most appealing for the insider’s look at Taiwanese culture, the motley crew of supporting cast and the multiple laughs per page.

TOP PICK IN MYSTERY
Imagine, for a moment, a Nancy Drew mystery told partially in flashback by Nancy herself, a girl grown up into the Best Detective in the World—her own rather immodest appellation—and now facing Her Most Perplexing Case. Then you will begin to have an idea of Sara Gran’s strange yet wildly entertaining novel The Infinite Blacktop. Somewhere along the way, our Nancy (whose name is actually Claire DeWitt) has evolved into a modern-day Sam(antha) Spade, with an overlay of street smarts and Zen calm counterbalancing one another in strangely effective ways. As the book opens, Claire comes very close to getting taken off the board permanently when her rented Kia is deliberately broadsided by a 1982 Lincoln, an event on par with a wooden rowboat getting rammed by the USS Nimitz. As she looks into who is trying to punch her ticket, she is drawn into a rethinking of the one case the Best Detective in the World has never been able to solve: the disappearance of her partner-in-crime-solving back when they were teenagers. As the narrative proceeds, another cold case gets woven in, and Gran deftly jumps back and forth between them, bringing the reader along for a wild ride across the decades.

This article was originally published in the October 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Mystery

Mystery

Whodunit: One toe over the North Korean line

Feature by Bruce Tierney

by Bruce Tierney

Martin Limón’s fine series of military police procedurals, set in South Korea in the mid-1970s, features George Sueño and his sidekick, Ernie Bascom—U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division agents who are the go-to guys when there’s a murder or some similarly sensitive issue regarding the military in the Land of the Morning Calm. The Line finds our heroes investigating the murder of a young Korean soldier whose body is found a few feet north of the line dividing North Korea from South. Technically, Sueño and Bascom shouldn’t have dragged the body back across the line into the South, but they’ve never been sticklers for details like that. When a suspect presents himself, the powers that be are eager to pin the murder on him. Sueño and Bascom think the whole thing is just a little too pat, however, and despite explicit orders to the contrary, they decide to delve into the matter. They find themselves caught up in a criminal enterprise that involves fraud, smuggling and perhaps human trafficking, plus the aforementioned murder. I have read every Limón book since 1992’s Jade Lady Burning, and I have every intention of continuing to do so; they are that good.

A SECRET THAT CAN’T BE KEPT
Catriona McPherson successfully channels the mystery chops of Agatha Christie and the dialogue skills of Noël Coward (apologies for the dated references, but this book has that sort of feel about it) in her standalone psychological thriller Go to My Grave. Back in 1991, there was a Sweet 16-ish party at a Scottish manor house that had seen better days, and something seriously awful happened. Now in present day, whether by happenstance or by design, several of the 1991 revelers find themselves back at the same B & B, which has been restored and is virtually unrecognizable. The eight guests are all family members, by blood or by marriage. But there is bad blood—and bad marriage—on display here, and another something awful is poised to take place. I’m not giving anything away to say that even a newbie reader of suspense fiction will feel a Stephen King-esque prickle of menace as things start to get out of hand, and even the most jaded of suspense aficionados should be gobsmacked by the twist at the end.

BECOMING BOND
Occasionally an author’s estate or a publisher gets the idea to craft a prequel to a popular series, and Anthony Horowitz performs this duty for ace British spy James Bond in Forever and a Day. As the book opens, M (the big boss of MI6) is discussing the death of agent 007, which initially seems odd, as this is at the inception of Bond’s illustrious career. But it turns out that the 007 under discussion is the previous holder of that particular license-to-kill number, and Bond is quickly promoted to take on his predecessor’s responsibilities. His mission takes him to the south of France, where he engages the first of the legendary villains that will characterize the adventures of Bond’s later life. The book uses some source material from original Bond author Ian Fleming, and of all the Bond books that have come out since Fleming’s death, this one may hew closest to the originals. The racy English sports cars, check. The sultry femme fatale, check. The oversize (both in girth and in ego) villain, check. Oh, and here’s a bonus: For those who have ever wondered why Bond drinks his martinis shaken, not stirred, this book is where you will find the answer.

TOP PICK IN MYSTERY
Ken Bruen’s Jack Taylor series has been a mainstay of my professional and pleasure reading since the Shamus Award-winning The Guards (2001). The series follows the downfall of Galway cop Taylor and his efforts to climb out of the (very deep) hole he created for himself with his alcoholism and his exceptionally poor choices of friends and lovers. The opening pages of In the Galway Silence find Taylor a little more settled than before: There is a romantic interest that tentatively seems to be working out, a bit of money in the bank, and he has the drinking under control for the most part. When bad stuff starts happening, only Taylor’s harshest critic could assign the responsibility to him—although it goes without saying that Taylor is his own harshest critic. One child is kidnapped and brutalized, another murdered, and a killer is on the rampage. Taylor knows who the culprit is and is powerless to do anything about it. But you can push Taylor only so far, and when he snaps, he’s gonna go bat%#@& crazy, which is the high point of Bruen’s books for most readers. Taut plotting, a staccato first-person narrative, deeply flawed yet sympathetic characters and the windy, wet Irish milieu conspire to put Bruen’s novels into a class by themselves.

This article was originally published in the November 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

November's best mysteries include both the beginning of Bond and a house party gone murderously wrong . . .

Animals, Literature, Nonfiction, Photography

Nonfiction Photography Literature Animals

For library dwellers and book hoarders

Feature by Julie Hale

by Julie Hale

The shelves are brimming with extra-special titles for bibliophiles. If there’s a discerning reader on your gift list, check out our must-have recommendations below. Here’s to a very literary holiday!

Poets and novelists can be solitary souls, but as Alison Nastasi reveals in Writers and Their Cats, they often have a rare appreciation for pets, especially of the feline variety. Featuring photos of 45 famous authors and their cat sidekicks, Nastasi’s purrrfectly charming book is filled with surprises, including a picture of a kitten-covered Stephen King. Sensational shots capture Alice Walker, Neil Gaiman, Gillian Flynn, Haruki Murakami and other beloved authors with cats at writing desks, in libraries and cozied up on sofas.

For the writer, what’s the allure of le chat? According to Nastasi, “The cat represents traits most appealing to the creative personality—qualities like mystery, cleverness, fearlessness, unpredictability, and sensuality.” Her book is catnip for literature lovers and an extraordinary celebration of kindred spirits.

© Underwood & Underwood / New York Times. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons. From Writers and Their Cats by Alison Nastasi, published by Chronicle.

RA-RA-RUSSIAN LIT
Author Viv Groskop takes heart from the tales of Tolstoy, Chekhov and Pushkin in The Anna Karenina Fix: Life Lessons from Russian Literature and looks at the morals and messages that can be gleaned from the masters’ works. With insight and humor, she examines 11 books and plays, revealing how her own experiences have been informed by timeless titles such as Dr. Zhivago, The Master and Margarita and War and Peace.

By chronicling the heartaches, dramas and hardships of daily existence, Russian literature can provide solace to the reader who seeks it. If you’re enmeshed in an ill-fated romance, Groskop prescribes A Month in the Country. Tormented by inner conflict? Pick up Crime and Punishment. Stories, Groskop says, “are as good at showing us how not to live as they are at showing us how to live.” Read and heed.

BOOK LOVER’S BOUNTY
An delightful compendium of literature-related history and trivia, Jane Mount’s Bibliophile: An Illustrated Miscellany is one of the season’s standout gift selections. In this splendid treasury, Mount explores literary genres and shares the reading recommendations of librarians and booksellers from across the country. She also presents nifty lists of literature-based enterprises, like blockbuster book-into-movie projects (Emma, The Shining) and famous songs inspired by great books (Bowie’s “1984,” Springsteen’s “The Ghost of Tom Joad”).

An avid reader since childhood, Mount has been painting what she calls Ideal Bookshelves, renderings of fellow bibliophiles’ favorite books, since 2008. Readers will enjoy perusing the colorfully illustrated, artfully assembled stacks that have become Mount’s trademark. Her artistic talents are on full display here in enchanting illustrations of meticulously detailed spines, book jackets, authors and notable libraries and bookstores.

Bibliophile is bliss for the book lover, from cover to cover.

LITERARY LIVING
Susan Harlan explores the estates, castles and cottages that appear in classic works of fiction in Decorating a Room of One’s Own: Conversations on Interior Design with Miss Havisham, Jane Eyre, Victor Frankenstein, Elizabeth Bennet, Ishmael, and Other Literary Notables. Harlan, who teaches English literature at Wake Forest University, brings scholarly expertise and epigrammatic wit to this guide to famous fictional figures’ digs.

Casting the literary hero as homeowner, the book features Apartment Therapy-style interviews with a wide cast of characters who expound upon design ideas and DIY projects. There’s plenty of decorating advice on offer: “If you own an abbey, don’t feel obligated to adopt an overly monastic style,” Emma’s Mr. Knightley counsels. “That would be badly done indeed!” From opulent (Pride and Prejudice’s Pemberley) to plainspoken (the March home in Little Women) to utterly inhospitable (Castle Dracula), the residences in this delightful volume run the gamut. Becca Stadtlander’s dainty illustrations make this a tour that readers will want to take again and again.

GALLERY OF GREATS
Growing up, photographer Beowulf Sheehan took refuge in books, and he pairs his twin passions to perfection in Author: The Portraits of Beowulf Sheehan, a gallery of 200 acclaimed contemporary writers, from Margaret Atwood to Colson Whitehead. Sheehan took his first author portraits in 2005 at the PEN World Voices Festival; by 2017, he’d photographed around 700 writers. His photos capture the idiosyncrasies and moods of each of his subjects, whether it’s a brooding Karl Ove Knausgaard or a radiant Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. In the book’s introduction, he shares on-the-job anecdotes involving the likes of Donna Tartt, Chinua Achebe and Umberto Eco. With a foreword by Salman Rushdie, this revelatory volume will bring a sparkle to any bibliophile’s holiday.

This article was originally published in the November 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Art, Crafts, Hobbies & Home, Nonfiction

Nonfiction Crafts, Hobbies & Home Art

Thoughtful gifts for the offbeat reader

Feature by Lily McLemore

by Lily McLemore

We all have a few delightfully odd friends or family members: your nephew who just moved back from New Zealand after 14 years herding sheep, your conspiracy-theorist cousin, your friend who’s always mastering some obscure talent. These five books might be the perfect solution to the riddle of what to get the person on your list who’s just a little . . . out there.

You were hoping to witness our ancient ancestors in action thousands of years ago. But then your time machine broke, and now you are stranded among people whose sole form of communication seems to be grunting. Thankfully, though, you have a handbook: How to Invent Everything: A Survival Guide for the Stranded Time Traveler, written by bestselling author and computational linguistics expert Ryan North. And luckily for any stranded time wanderers, North is incredibly funny, so you’ll be entertained while inventing fundamental technology for your fellow, albeit less-developed, man. This guide offers everything you need to build a civilization in no time (relatively speaking, as it took our ancestors 150,000 years to figure out how to talk). North covers language invention (English is not suggested; it’s kind of a wreck), measurements and horseshoes (which allow horses to work comfortably year-round, and as North writes, putting shoes on an animal “honestly seems like one of our most adorable achievements”). Avoid the pitfalls of our ancestors with this handy guide.

COMICALLY SPEAKING
It’s OK. We know your secret. Sometimes, life gets busy, and all you have time to read in the New Yorker are the cartoons—in fact, the cartoons may be your favorite part of the famed literary magazine. We have a feeling there’s more than a few people harboring this secret, and for them, there’s The New Yorker Encyclopedia of Cartoons: A Semi-serious A-to-Z Archive, a handsome, two-volume, slip-cased collection spanning nearly 10 decades and featuring almost 3,000 cartoons from the magazine. Each was chosen for inclusion by Bob Mankoff, the cartoon editor of the New Yorker from 1997-2017. There’s no lack of humor in its format either, as it is divided alphabetically into sections such as Crash Test Dummies, Elvis, Grim Reapers, Kayaks, Octopuses, Wise Man on the Mountain and (of course) Psychiatrists.

DAZZLE THEM
Do you ever feel that holiday comedown, after all the presents have been unwrapped and the coffee pot is empty? It’s only 10 a.m.—what do you do with the rest of the day, and how can you keep the kids from falling under the spell of their phones? Allan Zola Kronzek has provided the answer: a little magic. In Grandpa Magic: 116 Easy Tricks, Amazing Brainteasers, and Simple Stunts to Wow the Grandkids, Kronzek shows readers how to use everyday items like straws, cards, coins, toothpicks and even dinner rolls in simple tricks and sleights of hand that are fun, easy to master and guaranteed to impress a range of ages. And don’t worry, you don’t have to have grandchildren to enjoy this book. Illustrations of Kronzek, as your genial grandpa guide, provide instructions for the tricks, and Kronzek includes riddles and brainteasers of varying degrees of difficulty as well. By dinnertime, everyone will have a few new tricks up their sleeves.

ROAD TRIPPING
Despite being the creator and star of Comedy Central’s very funny “Broad City” with her friend Ilana Glazer, Abbi Jacobson is a private, contemplative person, more comfortable alone than in a crowd. In her 30s, she fell in love for the first time—and then, just as suddenly, the relationship was over. She was devastated, and after struggling through the fourth season of “Broad City,” she got in her car and drove across the country to reaffirm her identity as independent and capable. In her vulnerable yet laugh-out-loud collection of essays, I Might Regret This, Jacobson shares her thoughts on love, heartbreak, insecurities, tiny coffee cups, snacks and a lot more. It’s the perfect gift for any “Broad City” fan, and it wonderfully captures Jacobson’s voice in all of its kind, slightly neurotic, tangent-prone hilarity. She also narrates the audiobook, making it ideal for someone going on their own road trip of self-discovery.

MATH FIENDS
If you know a numbers or logic lover, The Riddler by Oliver Roeder, the puzzle editor for the statistics and analysis website FiveThirtyEight, was crafted for them. These puzzles aren’t for the faint of heart, though. They’ll test your geometry, logic and probability skills, and thankfully, Roeder provides thorough, entertaining answers to each puzzle. If you’re not currently working at NASA, you will probably need to think outside the box to solve these puzzles. Mind-bending questions ask you to consider the radius of a martini glass, Bayes’ theorem, the probability of a house being robbed in a town full of thieves and more. Just like a few loved ones on your gift list, The Riddler is a puzzler, indeed.

This article was originally published in the November 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Art, Memoir, Music, Nonfiction

Nonfiction Music Memoir Art

Where words leave off, music begins

Feature by Hilli Levin

by Hilli Levin

Five new gift-ready reads are here for the music lover in your life. From operatic rock to Americana, from classical to soul, we’ve got a pitch-perfect match no matter their genre of choice.

Queen superfans may be looking forward to the upcoming biopic Bohemian Rhapsody—starring “Mr. Robot” lead Rami Malek as iconic frontman Freddie Mercury—but the publication of Martin Popoff’s lovingly compiled Queen: Album by Album is an event in its own right. Popoff, who claims Queen is “absolutely the greatest band to ever walk this earth,” takes a deep dive into the band’s catalog and discusses each record in lively, conversational Q&A’s with musical figures like Sir Paul McCartney, Dee Snider, David Ellefson of Megadeth, Patrick Myers (lead in the Broadway musical Killer Queen) and more. Starting with Queen’s 1973 self-titled debut, the book moves chronologically, and every chapter begins with a detailed and passionate essay from Popoff on each album’s merits. Absolutely packed with photos of the band, gig posters and fun ephemera, Popoff’s freewheeling guide is definitely one to display.

TWEEDY'S TRUTH
Since 1994, the Chicago-based alternative rock-turned-Americana band Wilco have been pioneers of the indie scene, winning multiple Grammys and inspiring countless other musicians in their wake. Founder, frontman and lead songwriter Jeff Tweedy finally opens up to his devoted fans in his first memoir, Let’s Go (So We Can Get Back): A Memoir of Recording and Discording with Wilco, Etc. Put your well-loved copy of “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” on the turntable and settle in as Tweedy takes you through his childhood, early creative days in Chicago, the writing and recording of celebrated albums like 2004’s “A Ghost Is Born” and lays out some of his biggest struggles and triumphs.

A CLASSICAL TRADITION
Let’s be honest: Classical music has a bit of an image problem. For many, the mere mention of the genre conjures up images of the snooty bourgeoise in stuffy symphony halls. But BBC radio host Clemency Burton-Hill aims to change your perceptions and make you a bona-fide classical fan with Year of Wonder: Classical Music to Enjoy Day by Day. For each day of the year, Burton-Hill provides a piece of music by a wide range of composers—from a soaring hymn by medieval nun Hildegard of Bingen to stripped-down contemporary pieces composed by Philip Glass—along with a short rundown of the piece’s history and a description of what to listen for.

Joni Mitchell from Women Who Rock. Illustration by Anne Muntges, reproduced with permission from Black Dog & Leventhal.

LADIES LEADING THE WAY
Music journalist Evelyn McDonnell has written extensive biographies of groundbreaking artists like Joan Jett and the Runaways and Bjork, and she lends her decades of experience to editing Women Who Rock: Bessie to Beyoncé. Girl Groups to Riot Grrrl. The goal of this gorgeous coffee table book is “to tell a narrative story by focusing on key select figures who were true game changers.” And although the title suggests a focus on rock artists, the included essays offer “portraits of diversity, from Patsy Cline’s country melancholy to Joni Mitchell’s folk jazz to Missy Elliott’s avant rap.” Written by women and illustrated by women, this is a powerhouse collection that is completely, unapologetically celebratory. Revel in the greatness of Women Who Rock.

THE ONO FACTOR
Speaking of women getting some well-deserved credit in the music industry, did you know that Yoko Ono was only recently co-credited as a writer on John Lennon’s 1971 single “Imagine”? And now, her role in shaping Lennon’s late-period music and art is fully explored in Imagine John Yoko, a celebration of their partnership. Compiled by Ono and replete with photos from her personal archives, facsimiles of Lennon’s handwritten lyrics, stills from their narrative videos, excerpts from key interviews conducted during their collaborative period, concept sketches and photos of Ono’s pivotal art exhibits and more, this book will be a must-have for any fan of this world-changing pair. In a time when Ono’s activism seems as relevant as ever, she offers a rallying cry in the powerful preface: “Remember, each one of us has the power to change the world. Power works in mysterious ways. We don’t have to do much. Visualize the domino effect and just start thinking PEACE. It’s time for action. The action is PEACE.”

This article was originally published in the November 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Five new gift-ready reads are here for the music lover in your life. From operatic rock to Americana, from classical to soul, we’ve got a pitch-perfect match no matter their genre of choice.

Food & Drink, Literature, Nonfiction

Nonfiction Literature Food & Drink

A toast to good tidings and holiday cheer

Feature by Eve Zibart

by Eve Zibart

When it comes to this year’s wine and spirits books, everything old is new again, retasted and retold. After all, there are few subjects with more history behind them than booze. These five books touch on nostalgic and historic high points with some odd and entertaining side trips into potions, pot stills and poetry.

Blotto Botany: A Lesson in Healing Cordials and Plant Magic by herbalist and blogger Spencre L.R. McGowan is a sweet-natured throwback—a hippie-dipso catalog of restorative concoctions and medicinal cordials. These 40 recipes are sorted by season and include handy plant facts and trivia. Homebrewing with botanicals requires real dedication and may necessitate some specialty shopping, but luckily, McGowan’s colorful, collage-filled book with handwritten notes is a refreshing tonic itself. Recipes include a lilac-infused wine with the optional addition of rose quartz, an elderberry brew and various syrups, tonics and infused waters. Here’s a holiday tidbit for our toasters: Amethyst got its name, which essentially means “sober” in ancient Greek, because its winelike color was thought to counter alcohol. Good luck with that, merrymakers!

EDIT SOBER
A Sidecar Named Desire: Great Writers and the Booze That Stirred Them by artists Greg Clarke and Monte Beauchamp is a sort of Bartlett’s of imbibing anecdotes and illustrations, mixing tales of the great and powerful word wizards—F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner and Truman Capote, Edgar Allan Poe and Oscar Wilde, Dorothy Parker and Charles Baudelaire and more—with recaps of the evolution of the great spirits and a dash of recipes. Hemingway claimed to have popularized two cocktails—the Bloody Mary (probably not) and the Papa Doble (perhaps)—but then, he was always something of a braggart. Many of these inebriated authors created surrogate characters whose habits they knew all too well, and for whatever reason, guzzling gumshoes and sipping spies were a popular conduit—think Philip Marlowe, Sam Spade and, of course, James Bond. This is an entertaining little book for those whose love of literature is paired with a love of elicit elixirs.

PUB TALK
In Drink Beer, Think Beer: Getting to the Bottom of Every Pint, longtime beer critic John Holl evocatively writes, “I once had a beer made with caramel malts and almond extract that reminded me of the cookies served by our local Chinese restaurant after dinner. It had been years since I’d eaten that dessert, and the taste of the beer took me down an unexpected memory lane of family gatherings.” Holl goes on to fearlessly debunk beer snobbism, pointing out that the pumpkin-spice craze (love it or loathe it) followed the long custom of autumnal pumpkin beers, not the other way around. Despite the traditional admonition “beer before wine, mighty fine, beer after whiskey, mighty risky,” Holl embraces “cross-drinking,” by which he means dabbling in beer, wine and even cocktails in order to enjoy their various virtues. But be warned, Holl is a pro—not everyone should try this drinking style at home. Inspired by the BBC’s “Sherlock” and Holmes’ description of a “mind palace,” Holl suggests a “mind pub” to help you identify and remember the characteristics of beers you like.

SIP UP TO THE BAR
Single Malt: A Guide to the Whiskies of Scotland by Clay Risen is perhaps the most serious-minded book in the gift bag. The follow-up to his bestselling American Whiskey, Bourbon & Rye, Risen’s beautifully illustrated book pays homage to the flavors, aromas and aging of 330 bottlings from more than 100 fine Scottish single malt whisky distilleries. (For those a little confused by spellings, “whisky” without the “e” is how Scottish, Japanese and Canadian spirits are spelled; Irish and American whiskies, including bourbon and rye whiskey, use the extra vowel. Perhaps we need the oxygen.) Risen is an editor at the New York Times, and his book’s introductory material on the brewing, fermentation, blending and barreling of Scotch whisky is clear and blessedly short on jargon. His equally brief and unpretentious explanation of Scotch whisky’s history—especially the market balloons and busts, reform movements and wartime strictures—is sharp and instructive, and his descriptions of labels, flavors and more are insightful and concise.

FINE VINTAGE
The delightful Wine Reads: A Literary Anthology of Wine Writing is an anthology of short pieces, both fiction and nonfiction, about discovering, delving into and debauching on wine. Bestselling novelist and wine columnist Jay McInerney (who includes an article of his own in the book, a Tom Wolfe-ish nip at “Billionaire Winos” that begs for a film adaptation featuring Leonardo DiCaprio) has assembled more than two dozen stories that are worth reading for pleasure, presumably with a glass in hand. Some of these pieces and persons are delicious to rediscover: the original wine critic, George Saintsbury, author of the 1920 Notes on a Cellar-Book, who dissed tasting notes as “wine slang”; a chapter from Rex Pickett’s novel Sideways, which was adapted into a film that gave pinot noir a boost and merlot the boot; “Taste,” a classic Roald Dahl story written for The New Yorker; and so on. A bit of synchronicity: Both “Taste” and McInerney are mentioned in A Sidecar Named Desire.

This article was originally published in the December 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Mystery

Mystery

Whodunit: Big-name suspense to end a year of thrills

Feature by Bruce Tierney

by Bruce Tierney

December isn’t typically the strongest of months for new book releases, but this year, what is lacking in quantity is more than made up for in quality, with books from four of the finest contemporary suspense writers from North America, Europe and Japan.

A BOGGLING MYSTERY
It’s 1944, the closing days of World War II. Two men dig feverishly in a peat bog in Scotland to create a hole large enough to accommodate a pair of American motorcycles. Fast-forward to current day, when the granddaughter of one of the men decides to unearth the motorcycles. The first motorcycle has survived its lengthy incarceration beautifully, but there’s a dead body where the second should be. Enter Karen Pirie, cold case detective (because, hey, cases don’t get much colder than this), in the fifth installment of Val McDermid’s popular Karen Pirie series, Broken Ground. Things take a turn for the weird(er) when the body, supposedly buried for some 70 years, is discovered to be wearing a pair of Nikes. McDermid’s books are relentlessly excellent, with sympathetically flawed characters, well-crafted storylines, a clever twist or two and crisp dialogue. It’s no wonder she is considered the queen of Scottish crime fiction.

A NEW CRIME DUO
Cold cases are a running theme this month, as Michael Connelly pairs series stalwart Harry Bosch with Renée Ballard in their first (but hopefully not their last) adventure together, Dark Sacred Night. Ballard first showed up in 2017’s The Late Show as a solo act, but she and Bosch work exceptionally well as a duo, investigating the unsolved 2009 murder of a young runaway. The case holds a personal component for Bosch, as the mother of the murdered girl is staying at his house. There aren’t many clues available after the passage of so much time, but Bosch is dogged in his pursuit, and his personal creed—everybody counts or nobody counts—gets a run for its money this time out. Connelly does an exceptional job of giving voice to both his protagonists. They share a bit of an outsider’s perspective—respected for their work but not always liked by their peers—and this is what makes them such a formidable team. My favorite Connelly books pair Bosch with protagonists from his other books, like Mickey Haller in The Lincoln Lawyer, and this latest pairing is truly inspired.

NEIGHBORHOOD SECRETS
Keigo Higashino is one of Japan’s best-known suspense authors, and he has begun to carve a niche for himself in the rest of the world thanks to The Devotion of Suspect X, Malice and his latest Detective Kaga novel, Newcomer. Since we last saw Kaga, he has suffered a demotion from the Tokyo Police Department’s Homicide Division to a more local role in the quiet neighborhood of Nihonbashi. But his homicide experience soon gets him assigned to the team investigating the death of a woman found strangled in her apartment. Kaga’s Zen approach to crime solving is at odds with conventional police procedures, but it would be hard to find fault with his results. One by one, he interviews shopkeepers, neighbors and denizens of the streets, and he begins to create a picture of a homicide that has an entire neighborhood of potential suspects. Kaga, a modern-day Hercule Poirot, thinks even further outside the box than his Belgian predecessor, to the great delight of mystery aficionados.

TOP PICK IN MYSTERY
Louise Penny’s novels are unique for how seamlessly they straddle the line between charming small-town mysteries and big-city police procedurals. As Kingdom of the Blind opens, protagonist Armand Gamache, former head of the Sûreté du Québec, receives a strange invitation to an abandoned farmhouse, and an even stranger request to act as executor of a will crafted by someone he never met. It is something of a wacky will, with bequests that suggest that the writer was not playing with a full deck of cards. And then a body turns up, and the document takes on a decidedly darker aspect. Meanwhile in Montreal, a huge drug shipment is about to hit the streets, in part because Gamache allowed it to slip through the cracks as part of his plan to bring down the cartels. Most of the drugs were rounded up—except for one large shipment that threatens to destroy many lives, perhaps including Gamache’s. Each Gamache adventure (we are now at the 14th) displaces the previous one as the best in the series. I have read each one twice—first as a one-sitting page turner, and then shortly afterward as a leisurely reread in which I revel in the artistry of the prose, the characterizations, the locales. It’s not to be missed!

This article was originally published in the December 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Romance, Western Romance

Romance Western Romance

Romance: Melt even a scrooge’s heart

Feature by Christie Ridgway

by Christie Ridgway

At this point, holiday-themed romance is a yearly institution. And like most holiday traditions, it can all get a bit overwhelming. But never fear! Whether you’re in the mood for small-town sweetness or an old-fashioned Christmas ball, these five romances are the season’s best.

Another member of the Westcott family finds true love in Mary Balogh’s Someone to Trust. The setting is snow-covered and the company jolly, but two people at the holiday family gathering are feeling gloomy. Widow Elizabeth Overfield, at 35, wonders if now might be the time to find another husband and try for children. Eligible bachelor Colin Handrich, Lord Hodges, is 26 and contemplates doing his duty in the New Year and beginning the business of finding a wife. The pair enjoys each other’s company and feels an undeniable attraction, but the age difference makes them incompatible—or does it? Colin and Elizabeth bring out the best in each other, but on the way to a happy-ever-after they must confront ugly gossip, societal expectations and manipulative relatives. The quiet, authentic intensity of the characters’ emotions is a hallmark of Balogh’s work, and it is a pleasure to experience each heart-wringing moment in this romance made for warming a winter night.

MISSION OF LOVE
In Lori Wilde’s The Christmas Key, a soldier with PTSD reluctantly experiences the annual celebrations in the small town of Twilight, Texas. Consumed with guilt for his part in a fellow soldier’s death, Mark Shepherd is on a mission to return an heirloom key to the young man’s family. Upon meeting the Luthers, he’s astonished to find that Naomi Luther is straight out of his dreams—as in, he’s literally dreamed about her. Naomi doesn’t let on at first, but she’s dreamed about Mark, too. Are they soul mates? There are obstacles aplenty to real romance—from Naomi’s out-of-town sweetheart to Mark’s need to address his childhood and wartime experiences. The events surrounding Christmas ensure the two have plenty of time together, and as their feelings grow, so do the issues lying between them. Questions of destiny and faith are explored, and readers will cheer when the couple finds their way to forgiveness and love. The Christmas Key is a romance brimming with holiday spirit.

ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS
It’s Yuletide in London in Kiss Me at Christmas by Valerie Bowman. Lady Regina Haversham is looking forward to the holiday season because she’s decided to gift herself a man. A particular man: the dashing and roguish Daffin Oakleaf, a member of the Bow Street Runners, London’s first police force. He and Regina indulged in a flirtation in the not-too-distant past, but Daffin doesn’t accept her indecent proposal. Embarrassed by his rejection, Regina thinks she wouldn’t mind never seeing him again, but after she experiences some frightening attempts on her life, the lawman is forced to stay near the tempting Regina to solve the puzzle of why someone wants to harm her. Scorching romance and enjoyable mystery twine together in this charming story of a hero and heroine battling strict class expectations. Regina is no wilting flower, and her determination to direct her own life makes her an admirable partner for the oh-so-honorable Daffin (who wields his handcuffs in some very decadent ways). Bowman’s latest is a sparkling holiday tale.

HOLIDAY HIGH JINKS
Holiday, Texas, goes all-out for Christmas in Cowboy Christmas Jubilee by Dylann Crush. Jinx Jacobs doesn’t expect much out of life and hasn’t experienced a great deal of love. The holidays have never meant a thing to her, but that’s about to change when her broken motorcycle strands her in the small rural town, where she meets the Walker family and enters into the gleeful antics of this Christmas-crazy part of the country. Sheriff’s deputy and single dad Cash Walker doesn’t trust the tough loner at first, with her blue hair and tattoos, but soon he sees beneath the surface to find the warm woman with a big heart. Readers will enjoy the description of a holidays-gone-wild town that sponsors everything from a Turkey Trotter race to an Elf Auction to a Kissmas Cam. There are two unusual pets and a plot with some zany moments, but the characters are good, caring people who deserve to find everything their hearts desire under the tree.

TOP PICK IN ROMANCE
Susan Fox sends an arrow to the heart with Sail Away with Me. Family obligations bring successful musician Julian Blake back to Destiny Island in the Pacific Northwest. He ran from the island as a teen, under the shadow of a terrible secret. But now he must manage his complicated emotions concerning the island in order to return and help his injured dad. Iris Yakimura, the introverted local bookseller, acts as a balm to Julian’s soul. They build a friendship, albeit one that has a limited shelf life, since he’ll be returning to his career and she believes she’s island-bound forever. But they both find hidden strengths—Julian exposes the man who sexually abused him, and Iris faces up to her near-crippling shyness. This is no saccharine Christmas tale, though there’s sweetness to be found in the courageous actions of the characters. The discussion of the internment of Japanese Canadians during World War II adds another dimension to this wonderful story of finding love in the midst of hardship and pain. Prepare for tears and smiles, and have tissues at the ready.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Read our Q&A with Susan Fox about Sail Away with Me.

This article was originally published in the December 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Art, Photography

Photography Art

A feast for the eyes

Feature by Julie Hale

by Julie Hale

For the visual aesthete, a gorgeous book is always a great gift. If you’re shopping for a gallery-goer, an artist or someone who could use a creative boost, check out one of the bright selections below.

During a 23-year career that has taken her to 70 countries, Pulitzer- Prize winning photojournalist Lynsey Addario has documented the turmoil in hotspots like Libya, Pakistan and Iraq. Twice kidnapped in the line of duty, she delivers a spectacular retrospective of her work with Of Love & War, a majestic collection that captures the drama of everyday existence in war zones around the world. With chapters chronicling Afghanistan under Taliban rule, the refugee crisis and women in the military, the volume is a testament to the endurance of humanity. Excerpts from Addario’s diaries and personal correspondence, along with essays by war correspondent Dexter Filkins and others, provide context for the images. Addario explains that bearing witness to conflict is part of what drives her work. Photography is “proof,” she says. “There is no disputing an image.” And there is no disputing the impact of this revelatory collection.

SURVEY OF AESTHETICS
Stefan Sagmeister and Jessica Walsh formed the New York design firm Sagmeister & Walsh in 2012, and they’re quite a team. He’s from Austria; she’s a native New Yorker. He’s created album covers for David Byrne and the Rolling Stones; she’s a website-design whiz who’s worked with Barneys, Levi’s and Jay-Z. Together, they’ve produced an intriguing new volume, Sagmeister & Walsh: Beauty, an in-depth exploration of a timeless topic. Drawing upon the work of philosophers and scientists, the authors evaluate the complex power of beauty and its effects on our emotions and actions. They also take stock of the cultural landscape, with a look at developments in advertising, fashion and architecture, and the ways in which aesthetics factor into their impact. With an elegant slipcase, innovative graphics and page after page of stunning imagery, this is a book you can judge by its cover. From start to finish, Beauty lives up to its title.

A CREATIVE SISTERHOOD
During her art-student days, Danielle Krysa noticed that her textbooks were decidedly slanted toward male artists. She turns the tables with A Big Important Art Book (Now with Women): Profiles of Unstoppable Female Artists—and Projects to Help You Become One. In this inspiring volume, Krysa—a painter, collagist and founder of the art website the Jealous Curator—spotlights an international roster of women working in a range of mediums. Polish crochet artist Olek uses yarn to cover everything from a life-size train to the bull that stands on Wall Street. Bunnie Reiss designs whimsical murals that reflect her Eastern European background. Along with breathtaking visuals, each chapter contains a thoughtful exercise that can help readers turn their creative aspirations into realities. “Every artist is a storyteller in some way,” Krysa writes. Whether you’re a dedicated maker or a part-time dabbler, this book can show you how to access and share your own special story.

MASTER OF MANY MEDIUMS
Words fail to do justice to the genius on display in Oliver Jeffers: The Working Mind and Drawing Hand. A native of Belfast, Northern Ireland, Jeffers is an acclaimed artist and author. Now 41 and based in Brooklyn, he’s given TED talks, collaborated with U2 and produced an astonishing body of work, with drawings, collages, installations, paintings and picture books that range from surreal to playful to politically pointed. Jeffers’ new volume offers a wonderful sampling of this output. His singular vision shines forth in works that tweak cultural icons (Lady Liberty holds aloft a tiny match instead of a torch in the drawing “New Liberty”) and address social issues (guns grow on a tree in the collage “Land of Plenty”). Throughout, Jeffers provides input on his working methods and milestone projects. With an intro by Bono, this magnificent volume is a must for the art lover.

A VIEW OF HUMANKIND
In Civilization: The Way We Live Now, curators William A. Ewing and Holly Roussell have assembled a captivating visual chronicle of contemporary life across the globe that features images by today’s top photographers, including Thomas Struth, Larry Sultan, Lauren Greenfield and Cindy Sherman. The book was inspired, Ewing writes, by “an appreciation of the phenomenal complexity of civilization, and a curiosity to see how different photographers have dealt with it.” Indeed, Civilization presents a mosaic of moods, textures and techniques. The volume is organized into eight sections that address unique aspects of modern culture, from the cities we’ve constructed to the technological wonders we’ve conceived. Intimate portraits and teeming crowds bring home the diverse nature of humanity. Capturing the multiplicity of lived experience in an era of accelerated change, this provocative collection is a classic of its kind.

This article was originally published in the December 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Nature, Nonfiction, Photography

Nonfiction Photography Nature

It’s home, and it’s the only one we’ve got

Feature by Alice Cary

by Alice Cary

The world never stops being amazing and mysterious, as these four books remind us. Each offers a unique perspective, challenging readers to observe their surroundings as never before.

Who wouldn’t want to see the photo album of astronaut Scott Kelly, who spent a year aboard the International Space Station? Infinite Wonder: An Astronaut’s Photographs from a Year in Space is a remarkably mesmerizing accomplishment, especially given the microgravity environment. Kelly not only had to brace himself and his camera to keep from floating around but also had to pan the camera quickly when focusing his lens on Earth, galloping by at 17,500 miles per hour.

Take a look inside the phone booth-size quarters where Kelly slept in a green sleeping bag attached to a wall. Check out his space-walk selfies and a shot of him watching his twin brother Mark’s appearance on “Celebrity Jeopardy.” Kelly took dazzling shots of sunsets, sunrises, auroras, New York City, Hurricane Patricia and Paris after the 2015 terrorist attack. Following in the footsteps of his artist mother, to whom this book is dedicated, he also created “Earth Art,” amazingly colorful photos that vary from realistic shots to the seemingly abstract, showing islands in the Bahamas, fiery Peruvian volcanoes and an opalescent Iran resembling shimmering gold filaments.

True to its title, Infinite Wonder offers an amazing array of jaw-dropping photographs unlike any you’ve ever seen before.

PLANT PEERING
How about a botany primer on steroids? The subject bursts to life with a winning combination of stunning photographs and clear, concise scientific explanations in Flora: Inside the Secret World of Plants. Such lavishness comes naturally; the book is a joint venture between the Smithsonian and London’s Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. As Smithsonian Gardens Director Barbara W. Faust explains in her foreword: “The otherworldly beauty of the magnified subjects made me feel like I had landed on Lilliput and happened upon old friends who had been supersized!”

This weighty tome takes on the fundamentals with chapters on stems and branches, seeds and fruits, roots, leaves, flowers and plant families. Within each chapter are fabulous arrays of topics: nitrogen fixing, the strangler fir, fragrant traps, exploding seedpods and a variety of mini essays on plants in art. The photographs will lure you in like insects to a Venus flytrap. See the fine hairs that cover stinging nettles, the volcanic center of a corpse flower and the soft, springy tissues of a furled fern.

Spend some time with Flora, and you’re bound to look at the world differently.

FRESH, FANCIFUL TAKES
It’s easy to get lost in the pages of Seeing Science: An Illustrated Guide to the Wonders of the Universe, a marvelous mishmash of facts and illustrations by artist and lay scientist Iris Gottlieb. This unusual collection, perfect for browsing, is divided into sections covering life, Earth and the physical sciences. Readers of all ages and diverse scientific backgrounds will find factoids of interest: In 1970, two bullfrogs were sent into space to test motion sickness because their internal systems of balance are similar to humans’. Or how about this: Some ghost “encounters” can be explained by the effects of carbon monoxide poisoning, which causes hallucinations.

Gottlieb’s illustrations are fun, funky and informative, and her quirky sense of humor and intellectual curiosity up the entertainment value of Seeing Science.

FOREST BATHING
If all the data about climate change has left you down in the dumps, revitalize yourself with The Hidden Life of Trees: The Illustrated Edition, an abridged edition of German forester Peter Wohlleben’s bestselling book about the many secrets of our deep-rooted forest friends. This seems like a book that’s meant to be illustrated, after all, and these luminous photographs from around the world underscore Wohlleben’s intriguing explanations and arguments.

Just as Temple Grandin has revolutionized the way people think about livestock, Wohlleben is changing the conversations people have about trees by revealing the ways they react and communicate in social networks. While this book is full of inspiring photographs, it’s also meant to be read, not simply perused. Happily, Wohlleben’s lively writing style makes that a snap, with passages that ask, “So why do trees live so long? After all, they could grow just like wild flowers: grow like gangbusters for the summer, bloom, set seed, and then be recycled into humus.”

Tackling everything from “Community Housing” (animals and insects that inhabit trees) to “Street Kids” (urban trees), The Hidden Life of Trees: The Illustrated Edition leads readers on a thought-provoking nature expedition.

This article was originally published in the December 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

The world never stops being amazing and mysterious, as these four books remind us. Each offers a unique perspective, challenging readers to observe their surroundings as never before.

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