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NonfictionFictionMilitary HistoryMemoirComing of Age

Book Clubs: March 2019

Feature by Julie Hale

The Friend by Sigrid Nunez
TOP PICK
Winner of the National Book Award for Fiction, Sigrid Nunez’s The Friend focuses on the powerful connection between a grieving woman and her dog. The unnamed female narrator inherits Apollo, a 180-pound Great Dane, from a late professor friend who committed suicide. As she comes to grips with her friend’s death, the narrator finds herself increasingly concerned for Apollo, who is also clearly mourning his owner. Because pets aren’t allowed in her apartment building, the narrator refuses to leave him alone for extended stretches of time. Although her concern for him keeps her at home—and causes her friends to question her emotional well-being—the relationship revitalizes both woman and dog. Nunez delivers a compassionate, sharply realized study of one woman’s experience with grief, and she does so without lapsing into sentimentality. The Friend is an unforgettable exploration of loss, healing and canine love.

That Kind of Mother by Rumaan Alam
Affluent white couple Rebecca and Christopher decide to adopt the infant son of their late nanny, Priscilla, who was black. Alam’s portrayal of the fraught nature of contemporary race relations rings true in this empathetic novel.

Eat the Apple by Matt Young
In his debut memoir, Young uses a wide range of narrative tones and techniques to tell the story of his years as a Marine, and how unprepared he was for the horrors that awaited him in Iraq.

Aetherial Worlds by Tatyana Tolstaya
Fantasy and reality intermingle in these compelling short stories, which have earned Tolstaya comparisons to Gogol and Chekhov.

The Map of Salt and Stars by Jennifer Zeynab Joukhadar
Nour’s family relocates to Syria when her father dies, but war forces them into exile. Her story is linked with that of a 12th-century girl who also fled her home in this powerful novel of the refugee experience.

The best new paperback releases for book clubs.
Mystery

Whodunit: April 2019

Feature by Bruce Tierney

Top Pick
You have to wonder why one would bother to initiate a murder investigation immediately after half the world has gone kablooey in a nuclear holocaust. But I suppose there is not a lot else that takes precedence over a murder investigation in the wake of nuclear war. Some bastion of civility remains in a small boutique hotel in the Swiss Alps, where a young girl has just been killed. It matters not that the lead investigator in Hanna Jameson’s The Last has no investigative experience—the list of possible suspects is quite short, and motives and opportunities are severely limited by the world events of the past 60-odd days. There are security videos, but the power has been turned off to preserve energy for the upcoming winter when it will be needed for heat. And the caretaker who controls access to the power is something of an enigmatic character, not to mention a prime suspect in the murder, so there won’t be a lot of help from that quarter. Meanwhile, all communications are down, bands of predatory looters in search of food plague the countryside, and slowly but surely the aforementioned “bastion of civility” degrades into some distinctly un­civil behavior. This genre-bending novel neatly embraces dystopian fiction and murder mystery, with the Omega Man starkness of the former and the requisite twists and turns of the latter.

There’s a lot of history between characters Hap Collins and Leonard Pine, dating back to 1990’s Savage Season. The two have had each other’s backs through adventure after adventure, and they have solved cases and cemented their unlikely brotherhood (by East Texas standards) of a straight white guy and a gay black guy. In The Elephant of Surprise, Joe R. Lansdale’s dynamic duo doesn’t expend a lot of energy developing their relationship further; there simply isn’t time. There isn’t even a moment available for self-reflection or friendship evaluation from the moment they rescue a young albino Asian woman with a nearly severed tongue until the epic storm in which they pilot a prison bus of innocent survivors through deep flood waters in an attempt to escape a killer posse of bad guys. You’d be hard-pressed to find a single one of the book’s 256 pages sans bullets, blood spatter, murder and mayhem, all of which are overlaid with Hap’s dry Texas wit. The Elephant of Surprise is the read of the year thus far for adrenaline junkies, action-hero aficionados and, as is always the case with Lansdale’s novels, fans of clever and unexpected similes and metaphors. “The windshield wipers slaved back and forth like a mean librarian wagging her finger at a loud child. . . .”

I have to confess to strongly preferring first-person narration for suspense novels, perhaps because I cut my teeth on the laconic voice-overs of film noir. That said, I quite like Anne Perry’s third-person omniscient voice in her Daniel Pitt novels, the second of which is Triple Jeopardy. The London-set narrative is delivered in period-correct Victorian dialect and prose, which gives it the feel of having been written in another era entirely. The case centers on the alleged bad acts of a man hitherto protected by diplomatic immunity and on his defense in the English court by newly minted barrister Daniel Pitt. It is the first case of Pitt’s career in which he is lead barrister, and it is both a heady and decidedly frightening proposition for him. His client is on trial for embezzlement, but there is the very real possibility that further crimes, including assault and jewel theft, figure in as well—and perhaps even murder. Enlisting the help of his friend Miriam fforde Croft, an early practitioner of forensic sciences, Pitt divides his energies between defense and investigation, and just about the time you have your “aha!” moment, things take a sharp turn in another direction altogether. 

When Anne Hillerman took over the series that made her father, Tony, famous, she gave voice to the female characters in the series, bringing them into the mainstream narrative without taking anything away from the male characters upon whom the series was built. Hillerman wisely left the best parts of her father’s beloved characters’ storylines intact while creating compelling new additions. This time, in The Tale Teller, three parallel tales merge with unexpected results for each of the three protagonists. Retired cop Joe Leaphorn is investigating a case that the local museum director would like to have cleared up before her imminent retirement, that of a priceless traditional Navajo dress that has gone missing. Leaphorn’s former colleague Jim Chee is involved in an investigation of jewelry thefts, largely of Native American antiques. And Bernadette “Bernie” Manuelito must, somewhat reluctantly, share the stage with the FBI in the investigation of a murder on a popular running trail in the Arizona desert. As is always the case with Hillerman novels (either Tony or Anne), the supernatural is never far from the reader’s mind. Witchcraft and Native American lore permeate the narrative in a way that has appealed to readers for nigh on 50 years, with no end in sight.

Top Pick
You have to wonder why one would bother to initiate a murder investigation immediately after half the world has gone kablooey in a nuclear holocaust. But I suppose there is not a lot else that takes precedence over a murder investigation in…

NonfictionReligion & Spirituality

A full set of tools for a fulfilling life

Feature by Julie Hale

Spring is the perfect time to freshen up your outlook—to cultivate new habits and attitudes that can lead to a more satisfying life. These four inspiring books are designed to help you thrive. Here’s to new possibilities!

Fear: We all submit to its grip every now and again. But if the feeling is getting in the way of your goals, it’s time to take action. Carla Marie Manly shows readers how to turn this emotion into a tool for growth in her new book, Joy From Fear: Create the Life of Your Dreams by Making Fear Your Friend. In this warm, welcoming guide, Manly, a clinical psychologist, digs deep into the subject of fear, exploring its connections to anxiety and childhood trauma. She also offers tips on how to constructively cope with worry, self-doubt and chronic stress—the forces that so often hold us back from happiness.

Breaking out of fear-based patterns is a crucial move on the journey to joy, Manly says, and she outlines a range of strategies, including visualization exercises and breathing techniques, for doing just that. Perhaps most importantly, she helps readers be receptive to “transformational fear”—a source of productive energy that can be a motivator for positive change, whether it’s making that dreaded doctor’s appointment or discussing relationship issues with a significant other. Sure, fear can paralyze, but it can also galvanize. Pick up a copy of Manly’s book, and prepare to feel empowered.

It may be small in size, but Diana Winston’s The Little Book of Being: Practices and Guidance for Uncovering Your Natural Awareness brims with big-hearted advice on achieving inner peace. Winston is the director of mindfulness education at the UCLA Semel Institute’s Mindful Awareness Research Center. She describes natural awareness as the mind “at rest,” a condition of “simply being—without agenda.” Once you know how to tap into it, Winston says, natural awareness can help you shut out the pressures and demands of daily activity and increase your sense of focus. 

In brief chapters, Winston probes the meaning of natural awareness and leads readers through “glimpse practices” that can be performed at any point during the day or folded into a meditation routine. These simple prompts—including evocative word phrases and body-focused exercises—will help awaken natural awareness. Winston writes for both the experienced awareness-seeker and the novice, and she supplements her advice with insights into her own life and mindfulness evolution. When “you feel a sense of contentment not connected to external conditions,” Winston writes, you’re experiencing natural awareness. Her gentle instruction can result in a more open, responsive and balanced way of being.

Another take-action guide designed to bring about fundamental change is Shunmyo Masuno’s The Art of Simple Living: 100 Daily Practices From a Japanese Zen Monk for a Lifetime of Calm and Joy. This international bestseller has helped people around the world quiet the chaos of everyday life, stress less and appreciate more. In the book, Masuno—chief priest of the 450-year-old Kenko¯-ji Temple in Japan—offers forthright advice rooted in the teachings of Zen, which, he writes, is “about habits, ideas, and hints for living a happy life.” 

Divided into four parts, the book provides practical steps for becoming more present, as well as suggestions for building confidence and letting go of anxiety. Masuno’s tips are easy to execute. Simple changes—like waking up 15 minutes earlier than usual to savor the morning, or creating a pocket of quiet at work by doing a “chair zazen” (sitting up straight and breathing slowly)—will make a difference in your daily flow. Spare, evocative line drawings by artist Harriet Lee-Merrion accompany each lesson. Through this inspiring guide, Masuno shows that every step you take on the path of personal growth, no matter how small, can have a major impact.

Personal growth can be a faith-based process—one that often involves unexpected changes of heart, as bestselling author Barbara Brown Taylor demonstrates in Holy Envy: Finding God in the Faith of Others. Taylor, a professor of religion at Piedmont College in Demorest, Georgia, is candid about the ways in which teaching has informed her faith. Over time, her own Christian views have shifted. 

“I found things to envy in all of the traditions I taught,” Taylor writes. In Holy Envy, she shares stories of spiritual discovery from campus and beyond, mixing accounts of classroom life into astute considerations of the world’s differing belief systems. She wants her students to recognize that “religion is more than a source of conflict or a calculated way to stay out of hell. Religions are treasure chests of stories, songs, rituals, and ways of life that have been handed down for millennia.” On field trips, Taylor and her students visit houses of worship in their many forms—synagogues and mosques, shrines and centers for meditation—and the excursions prove transformative. Heartfelt, thoughtful and beautifully written, Taylor’s book will give readers who are undertaking their own spiritual journeys a sense of purpose and perspective.

Spring is the perfect time to freshen up your outlook—to cultivate new habits and attitudes that can lead to a more satisfying life. These four inspiring books are designed to help you thrive. Here’s to new possibilities!

Four ecstatic collections for National Poetry Month

Feature by Matthew Johnstone

Brenda Shaughnessy’s fifth collection, The Octopus Museum, is an immersive tour of social and ecological calamities, as well as an elegy for the present. Told from a distant but impending point of crisis by speakers who seem both strange and familiar, the book is composed of several galleries through which Shaughnessy grants glimpses of an unrecognizable world. The reader sees a tally of America’s destructive conditions, including our blindness to the environmental and social repercussions of consumerism. In “Our Beloved Infinite Crapulence,” the speaker depicts this shortsightedness:

“I should pull out my earbuds, and hear the world (my first love, my favorite store).”

Throughout this wondrous, flowing book, Shaughnessy’s world pleads with the reader to “stop already. Stop if you can,” while steering the reader toward another, equally important certainty:

“Knowing how to change—not color or mind or body or action but

perspective—and refusing to do it is how species vanish.”

Continuing his exploration of the sound and sense of language, Willie Perdomo’s The Crazy Bunch is the retelling of a single summer for a tight-knit group of young men. An energetic musicality of language is on full display, electrifying every exchange. Drawing heavily from the luminous, sonic explorations of the Beats, Perdomo paints his crew with a vernacular that, like those countercultural poets, defines itself against regimented communication:

“Stories started their

premises on the stoop, broke arcs by the time

they reached the uptown express, and the real

was played & buried by the time it got

directions.”

If “We Real Cool,” the iconic eight-line poem by Gwendolyn Brooks, had bloomed into a full-length collection, it might be The Crazy Bunch.

The title of Lee Ann Roripaugh’s latest collection, tsunami vs. the fukushima 50, refers to the 50 employees who remained on site at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant after the devastating 2011 tsunami. Tsunami, it becomes clear, is the vast entity formed by the prism of narratives merging through each poem in this collection. From the start, the personified Tsunami is sketched as polymorphic. Whether we see it through a contemporary, media-saturated lens (“call her the meme ”) or as an environmental lamentation (“a rising tide of salt tears / for the world’s fractured core”) or as Frankenstein’s creature (it “turns and faces / threatening villagers with / their flaming sticks”), Tsunami is personified and portrayed as both protagonist and antihero.

As in a Cubist painting, Tsunami seems to be no one particular thing. This book utilizes an innovative, fragmented diction that defies traditional prose as it attempts to invent a profound language to make sense of the senseless. Refracted in these scenarios are the manifold ways in which we attempt to define Tsunami and understand such a tempestuous entity. By giving the cataclysmic a voice, Roripaugh offers a path toward liberty through the chaos and confusion:

“sometimes I find myself hiding inside

a hibernating tsunami siren, paralyzed

and mute . . . trying

to wake and unquiet myself free”

Ilya Kaminsky’s widely anticipated second collection, Deaf Republic, is an intoxicating and wondrous formulation of strength in chorus through a community’s “silence / which is a soul’s noise.” After a deaf boy is gunned down by a soldier from a nameless army occupying the town of  Vasenka, the townspeople begin an insurgency against their occupiers:

“Our hearing doesn’t weaken, but
something silent in us strengthens.”

Kaminsky, himself a near-deaf poet, offers an eccentric yet elegant response to trauma with Deaf Republic. In “To Live,” the reader learns that resilience and hope require an active imagining because “The heart needs a little foolishness! / For our child I fold the newspaper, make a hat.” To keep sorrow at bay, characters combat the evils of the world by inventing angels. Visions crop up amid the commonplace, as in “A Bundle of Laundry,” in which “Snow pours out of the sun.”

In these sincere, striking poems, Kaminsky posits the beauty of this world as essential—to inspire those who, unlike the people of Vasenka, don’t require beauty to merely exist. “Our country is the stage,” Kaminsky announces in “Gunshot,” and he warns against an idle or uncritical engagement with the world. “Search Patrols” addresses this complicity and its unknown repercussions:

“The crowd watches.

The children watch us watch.”

This collection places its most deliberate examples of optimism in its lowliest moments, affirming our ability to be stirred and incited by profoundly disheartening events. Kaminsky’s collection asks, “How do we live on earth?” He answers: We are resoundingly as complicit in the good as we are in the bad.

April’s celebration of poetry offers us the chance to see the world differently. These four collections invite us to pay attention to larger social and cultural issues, explored in distinct ways.

Children's & YA

Playful poetry young readers will love

Feature by Julie Hale

We’re celebrating poetry’s impact and importance with five fabulous new collections, each filled with verses that will inspire the wordsmiths of tomorrow.

If you’ve ever wondered how to walk on Mars, distinguish a goblin from an elf or frighten a creepy monster, then you simply must get a copy of The Proper Way to Meet a Hedgehog and Other How-to Poems. Instruction on the aforementioned activities can be found in this ingenious illustrated anthology, which features wonderful works from world-class poets—including Douglas Florian, Marilyn Singer, Nikki Grimes and Kwame Alexander—selected by Paul B. Janeczko (The Death of the Hat). In “How to Build a Poem,” Charles Ghigna offers fitting inspiration that sums up the collection’s aim: 

“Let’s build a poem

made of rhyme

with words like ladders

we can climb”

Playful illustrations by Richard Jones bring unity to the assortment of voices, forms and poetic modes that fill this playful anthology. Who knew a how-to collection could be such a hoot?

Poetry rocks! If you require proof, just check out Rhett Miller’s No More Poems!: A Book in Verse That Just Gets Worse. Miller, whose day job is songwriter and frontman of the alt-country band Old 97’s, has produced a rowdy, rollicking, irresistible collection of poems, many of them written from a kid’s perspective. In pieces about too-early bedtimes, quibbling siblings and mysteriously missing homework, he brilliantly channels the mindset of a typical tween. Miller is a wordplay pro with the skills to set up extended rhyme schemes. Featuring bold mixed-media illustrations by Caldecott-winning author and illustrator Dan Santat, this inspired collection sings from start to finish.

Avery Corman’s Bark in the Park!: Poems for Dog Lovers is a fun frolic with canines of nearly every conceivable breed. Corman is an expert at articulating what makes dogs unique, whether the pooch is a cocker spaniel (“an always on-the-run dog, / A floppy ears and fun dog”), an Afghan hound (“Although he’s noble and aloof . . .  he still says ‘woof!’”) or a pug (“Is the Pug cute / Or is the Pug ugh?”). Corman’s poems are compact—many consist of a single stanza—and filled with alliteration. Artist Hyewon Yum’s renderings of the pups (and their respective people) are spot-on. A sunny, silly, buoyant book, this is a winning tribute to a kid’s best friend. 

In Isabelle Simler’s stunning volume Sweet Dreamers, it’s nighttime in the wild, and critters are quietly snoozing. Through minimalist poems, Simler explores their sleeping habits. A delightful menagerie of animals on land and in the sea—koala bear, cat, ant, giraffe, seahorse, stingray and dolphin—populate this lovely collection. Simler employs a spare writing style, yet she perfectly captures each creature in repose. The bat “dreams upside down,” she writes, “toes clinging to the ceiling, / kite-fingers folded like a blanket.” From the sloth, “slung like a hammock,” to the mighty humpback whale, who “nosedives / into sleep” in the ocean, “balancing on her head / or the tip of her tail,” Simler conjures up original imagery for each animal that readers of all ages will appreciate. Her dense, detailed illustrations, highlighted with vibrant touches of color, depict the glittering majesty of the natural world at night. The perfect way to wind down the day, Sweet Dreamers is the ultimate bedtime read.

Allan Wolf takes readers on an unforgettable galactic journey in The Day the Universe Exploded My Head: Poems to Take You Into Space and Back Again. Using a variety of poetic forms, including the sonnet and the elegy, Wolf writes about eclipses, meteorites, shooting stars, astronauts, cosmonauts and famous scientists. But this isn’t just straight-laced science; Wolf’s poems brim with mischief. He depicts Jupiter, the solar system’s largest occupant, as “the planets’ bodyguard,” whose “gravity keeps space debris / from landing in the yard.” And Saturn is a diva who’s proud of her planetary bling: 

“My rings are often copied,

but they never get it right.

The secret’s in the extra ice

I add to catch the light.” 

In her colorful, cosmic collages, illustrator Anna Raff imbues the planets with plenty of personality (the Sun sports Wayfarer-inspired shades; Neptune strums a guitar). From takeoff to touchdown, this space mission is a success. 

We’re celebrating poetry’s impact and importance with five fabulous new collections, each filled with verses that will inspire the wordsmiths of tomorrow.

RomanceMystery

Some like it smart: seven brainy romances

Feature by Grace Burrowes

Romance readers have always loved blazingly intelligent leads, and Grace Burrowes’ latest historical romance has two—the canny, wordly duchess Matilda Wakefield and bookish, kindhearted Duncan Wentworth. While Matilda hides from her troubles at Duncan’s country estate, they fall in love over transcribing journals and games of chess. In honor of When a Duchess Says I Do (our April Top Pick in romance!) we asked Burrowes to tell us about her favorite love stories starring similarly brainy couples.

Engaging characters come with all kinds of strengths and weaknesses, and—how does this happen?—sometimes what they think is their strongest suit can end up being their downfall, and conversely. When a Duchess Says I Do is the story of Duncan Wentworth and Matilda Wakefield, two very logical, analytical people who find chess erotic and polite society ridiculous. Their romance was a lot of fun to write because those who put their faith in reason can be among the most passionate under the right circumstances. I’ve listed below some other titles featuring characters with a penchant for pondering or an inclination toward intellectualizing. They all find their HEAs, but not by looking in the dictionary!

The Countess Conspiracy by Courtney Milan
Sebastian Malheur and Violet Waterfield, Countess of Cambury, have a relationship built around scientific insights—hers—and social entré—his. Just as we’d expect from somebody named Malheur, Sebastian is a naughty fellow, but being a fellow, he has the creds to propound theories that Violet, a respectable widow, does not. This romance is signature Courtney Milan with its sparkling prose, brilliant repartee and insightful world-building that illuminates both the romance and the fundamental injustice of gender roles (which isn’t exclusive to the historical period). It’s a terrific read.

Midsummer Moon by Laura Kinsale
This book came out in 1987, when scientifically inclined heroines in historical romances were few and far between. Merlin Lambourne has built a flying machine (yes, there is precedent for this), and Ransom Falconer, Duke of Deverell, can see the strategic value of her invention in the battle to defeat Napoleon. They are two very different people, and did we mention he’s afraid of heights while she works literally in a tower? I will never forget the climax of this book, one of the loveliest depictions of what it means to truly, truly fall in love.

Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn
This series opener is not strictly a romance, but the chemistry between widowed Lady Julia Gray and enigmatic sleuth Nicholas Brisbane is as intriguing as the mystery they set out to solve. Both are passionate, intrepid characters, but they also bring tons of deductive skill and technical expertise to their stories. When Julia would be impulsive, Brisbane is the rational partner. When Brisbane is in a temper, Julia can puncture his conceits with a few pithy insights based on evidence and observation. Never did cool logic and sweet reason have such delightfully romantic results!

Not Quite a Husband by Sherry Thomas
Leo Marsden and Bryony Asquith are another historical couple grappling with the social mores that penalize a woman for developing gifts in a traditionally male preserve. In this case, Bryony becomes a physician, and Leo, her former spouse (their brief marriage was annulled), is tasked with escorting her home from India. The journey home, fraught with perils that require them to rely upon each other, is a metaphor for the journey toward a relationship that allows both partners to thrive—to heck with society’s narrow-mindedness. Beautiful prose, phenomenal world-building, scrumptious reading!

Not Quite a Lady by Loretta Chase
This my favorite Loretta Chase (so far) for so many reasons. The heroine, Lady Charlotte Hayward, has been maneuvering and plotting for years to remain unmarried. She is much shrewder and more insightful than she seems (by design), while Darius Carsington is a biologist who views reproductive physiology as nothing to get emotional about, no matter how energetically he undertakes his raking. Charlotte provides the insufferably scientific Mr. Carsington quite an education about the limitations of book-learning, while Darius shows Charlotte that the world yet holds many unexpected wonders . . . so to speak.

The Spymaster’s Lady by Joanna Bourne
I could have chosen anything by Joanna Bourne, because her protagonists are all bright, self-reliant, resourceful, articulate and possessed of arcane talents (Hawker and his knives, Doyle and just about everything). I went with Annique Villiers and Robert Grey, because in the course of this series opener, they both engineer twists—note the plural—that leave me with such a case of plot-envy that the only cure is to re-read this book regularly and often. When reviewers talk about a brilliant debut, this is exactly the kind of book they’re referring to.

A Duke in the Night by Kelly Bowen
Not all smarty-pants protagonists are scientific! Some boast a broad love of learning, like Clara Hayward, headmistress of Haverhall School for Young Ladies, while others have a mind for business brilliance, like August Faulkner, duke and Bond Street buccaneer. How they come to appreciate each other’s different kinds of smarts is part of the fun of this witty, warm-hearted Regency.

 

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Read our review of When a Duchess Says I Do.

When a Duchess Says I Do author Grace Burrowes lists her seven favorite brainy romance couples.

Children's & YAPicture Book

New picture books help youngsters cultivate confidence

Feature by Julie Hale

Full of sunshine and cheer, these four picture books focus on helping children gain courage, confidence and self-esteem. These spirit-lifting stories will awaken young readers to the wonders of nature, and they just may become emboldened to embrace their unique qualities and step outside to make a mark on the world.

Written by Jeanne Willis, Stardust is a perspective-changing story about the importance of self-worth. The book’s young female narrator longs for attention, but she can’t compete with her overachieving older sister—the star who excels at everything. Her big sis is a better knitter, the winner of the big costume contest, and she was also the one who found mom’s wedding ring after it goes missing. Yep, definitely star material. The narrator feels overlooked and underappreciated until Granddad tells her a story about the universe and the way stars are created. He assures her that she’s as bright as her sister. “You just shine in different ways,” he explains. Briony May Smith adds dazzle to Willis’ prose through lively illustrations of the narrator—a spunky figure with red hair—on imaginary travels with Granddad in outer space. As Willis demonstrates in this winning story, establishing a sense of self-esteem in children is critical from the get-go. Stardust can help get the conversation started.

In Pat Zietlow Miller’s heartening story Remarkably You, the author pays tribute to the traits that make people unique and emphasizes themes of acceptance. A skillful poet, she packs nuggets of wisdom into nimble rhymes: “No matter your volume, your age, or your size, / YOU have the power to be a surprise. / You have the know-how. / You’re savvy and smart. / You could change the world. / Are you willing to start?” Illustrated with nuance by Patrice Barton, Remarkably You features a diverse lineup of youngsters, each with myriad talents and strengths, who come together to forge friendships. Through beautiful scenes of the kids at work and at play, Barton depicts the different ways children can contribute and enhances the story’s uplifting mood. It’s never too early to encourage children to own who they are. A book that can serve as a confidence-booster in the classroom, Remarkably You reminds readers to appreciate and cultivate the qualities that make us all special.

Sure to ignite a sense of possibility in readers, Shelley Thomas’ poetic new offering, From Tree to Sea, celebrates the pleasures of getting outside and the lessons that children can glean from their surroundings. Touching down in a variety of locations including the desert, the ocean and the rocky heights of a steep mountainside, this appealing picture book follows adventurous girls and boys as they make exciting discoveries about their environments. Throughout the book, Thomas plays up the aspects of nature that can provide comfort and assurance to young readers. Her accessible text makes the title a perfect read-along: “Trees show me how to stand tall. / Even when the wind / tries to blow me down, / I dance with the breeze. / I do not fall.” Filled with creative rhymes and arresting imagery, her verses capture the multifaceted quality of the great outdoors. The book’s colorful, vibrant illustrations, contributed by artist Christopher Silas Neal, will intrigue young explorers. Simple on the surface, this sweet story imparts important truisms about the planet we call home.

Nature’s many valuable messages are also at the center of The Amazing Idea of You. Featuring poetic text by Charlotte Sullivan Wild, this book looks at the cycles of nature through the eyes of a young girl. From a bird’s egg to a caterpillar’s cocoon, the story demonstrates how life abounds with transformation, potential and mystery. Apple in hand, the girl thinks about the secret inside the fruit—“the idea of a tree” contained within its seeds. When she starts an orchard of her own, she bears witness to the results: “Where you once planted seeds, now an orchard teems with creatures singing, springing, fluttering, winging.” Artist Mary Lundquist provides warm, wonderful depictions of earth’s busy inhabitants such as leaping frogs, a colorful butterfly and a waddling goose with her goslings. Wild’s accessible verses reveal important connections between birth, growth and renewal. From start to finish, this is a first-rate introduction to the workings of the world and the magic of sprouting things.

Full of sunshine and cheer, these four picture books focus on helping children gain courage, confidence and self-esteem. These spirit-lifting stories will awaken young readers to the wonders of nature, and they just may become emboldened to embrace their unique qualities and step outside to make a mark on the world.

NonfictionFictionComing of Age

Book Clubs: April 2019

Feature by Julie Hale

Top Pick
Rachel Cusk concludes her acclaimed Outline Trilogy with Kudos, which finds the narrator, a British writer named Faye, in a new marriage. During a literary festival and travels in Europe, Faye encounters people in various stages of disillusionment about their lives and domestic affairs. As ever, she proves a willing listener while acquaintances pour out their stories. From the self–centered journalist who comes to interview Faye and hardly stops talking, to publicists, writers and others of literary ilk, Faye crosses paths with a jaded cast of characters who tell all. Meanwhile, she keeps in contact with her two sons via phone, conversations that bring tenderness to the book. Like its predecessors Outline and Transit, this novel is understated yet fierce—a beautiful and melancholy exploration of the female experience, precisely rendered by its author. Followers of the series will find this final installment deeply satisfying.

Look Alive Out There
by Sloane Crosley
A smart, companionable presence on the page, Crosley cements her reputation as one of today’s leading nonfiction writers with this collection of shrewdly observed pieces that touch on topics as wide-ranging as fertility, volcanoes and life as a single woman in New York City. 

Varina
by Charles Frazier
Varina, wife of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, leaves her home as the Civil War ends and fends for herself and her children. Frazier chronicles her remarkable life in this richly detailed novel.

The Overstory
by Richard Powers
Powers works on a grand scale to tell a grand story about the interconnectedness of humankind and nature as nine disparate characters come together to preserve an area of virgin forest.

Tin Man
by Sarah Winman
Winman has crafted a heartbreaking narrative about love and redemption in her powerful third novel, which explores the relationships and disparate paths of three young people.

Top Pick
Rachel Cusk concludes her acclaimed Outline Trilogy with Kudos, which finds the narrator, a British writer named Faye, in a new marriage. During a literary festival and travels in Europe, Faye encounters people in various stages of disillusionment about their lives…

Children's & YAPicture Book

Silly stories to inspire a love of language

Feature by Alice Cary

There’s great fun to be had in messing around with letters and words, and these four new picture books balance hilarity and education.

After his first day of kindergarten, author Tony Johnston’s grandson asked him, “We’re learning the letters, but what do they do?” Johnston was then inspired to write The Magic of Letters, an exhilarating answer whose cover shows letters tumbling out of a magic hat in front of a rabbit. Inside, the rabbit explains that “Letters hold magic. When you know their secrets, they open worlds.” The text shows how letters form words, proclaiming “Letters hold POWER. You can shuffle them around to make loads of mighty words.” On this poster-worthy spread, the rabbit drives a bright orange dump truck filled with words like “diversity,” “libraries,” “art” and “science.” Subsequent pages are playful, toying with words like “flibbertigibbet” and “quesadilla.” Wendell Minor’s childlike illustrations set a variety of moods, ranging from scenes of moonlit enchantment to the excitement felt by a boy and girl who hop on the back of a colorful toucan and soar into a sky filled with letters. Johnston urges readers to roll words “in your mouth like lollipops.” Yup, there’s a mighty sweet reason for learning those ABCs, and The Magic of Letters is proof.

A girl and her younger brother spend a glorious summer day camping near the sea, going to an amusement park, and swimming in author-illustrator Fiona Woodcock’s effervescent Hello. The story is cleverly told with only one or two words on each page, each and every one containing the paired letters “ll.” It’s a nifty follow-up to Look, in which the same siblings visit a zoo, “oo” words. Once again, Woodcock makes her amusing premise work well, starting out with the words “hello” and “yellow” as the sun rises over the family’s tent site. The siblings collide on bumper cars, yell their way down a giant slide and gallop aboard a carousel. Adding to the charm, Woodcock often incorporates those double letters into her illustrations, as the poles of each carousel horse or the boy’s long legs as he views himself in a hall of mirrors. Woodcock’s cheerful art accentuates the joy of every moment in a wonderful graphic style, often using the spatter of blow pens to mix her muted colors. Hello is a book readers will be eager to greet again and again.

As a green lion repeatedly approaches a stoplight, instead of the expected green light, a series of new surprises await, each beginning with the letters “li.” Sometimes the resulting events are “startling” (lightning and rain), sometimes “alarming” (a flood), sometimes “timely” (a passing rowboat), and so on. Occasionally, a picture book can strike a deep chord, and Candace Ryan’s Red Light, Green Lion does just that, serving as the perfect parable for its epigraph from Dutch theologian Henri Nouwen, part of which says, “Let’s not be afraid to receive each day’s surprise, whether it comes to us as sorrow or as joy.” Never fear―this book is anything but heavy. With wonderfully spare text, Ryan builds anticipation with repetitions that prompt young readers to guess what might be next. Illustrator Jennifer Yerke’s simple line drawings in a limited palette of primary colors serve as the perfect counterpoint to the text, keeping the story light and lively. Red Light, Green Lion is a squeal-worthy preschool read-aloud that contains an invaluable lesson for all ages.

Sometimes the wrong word can be a lot more fun than the right one, and that’s certainly the case in Lambslide, the first picture book from award-winning adult author Ann Patchett. On a bucolic farm owned by none other than the Farmer family, young Nicolette is running for class president. When her mom says, “You’ll win by a landslide,” a group of rambunctious, self-centered lambs hear her prediction as “lambslide.” The lambs conclude that this wonderful sounding malaprop is exactly what they need, and through a series of negotiations with their mom, the other farmyard animals and the Farmers, they are forced to consider the needs and wants of others. Finally, after a farm-wide vote, these wooly crusaders get what they’re after, sharing the fun with everyone. This lively tale of teamwork―along with a playful peek at politics―features bestselling illustrator Robin Preiss Glasser, of Fancy Nancy fame, whose appealing art has something of an old-fashioned feel. The result is a book full of visual and verbal delights, brimming with joy, energy and humor.

There’s great fun to be had in messing around with letters and words, and these four new picture books balance hilarity and education.

Mystery

Whodunit: May 2019

Feature by Bruce Tierney

TOP PICK
It’s Christmastime in the U.K., and all the cops are hoping that maybe this will be the year they’ll get to spend the holidays with their families. It is not to be. “Everything is slack, unurgent. It all smacks of too late,” one of the detectives muses as they pull up to the crime scene. Someone at the scene comments, “She’s been more than killed. She’s more than dead.” And it was then, a scant 17 pages in, when I realized that I would not be putting this book down until I had reached the end. The detectives at the center of Patrick McGuinness’ Throw Me to the Wolves, narrator Ander and his partner Gary, could scarcely be more unalike. Ander is sensitive and introspective, while Gary is a throwback to an earlier time, when beating a suspect or drinking on the job, while not publicly condoned, was not privately condemned either. The suspect is a retired boarding school teacher, someone Ander knew from his school days a lifetime ago, a man seemingly incapable of such a heinous killing. Thus, two parallel narratives emerge, one about the investigation of the murder and a second about events of times long past. McGuinness delves into current events (Brexit, et al.) and lobs numerous digs at the tabloid media, all while delivering a first-rate whodunit. It’s only May, but Throw Me to the Wolves looks like a strong candidate for mystery of the year. Or any year.

Jeffery Deaver already has two major suspense series to his credit, and now he’s starting another with The Never Game, which features arguably the most unusual protagonist of his career thus far: itinerant reward seeker Colter Shaw. An expert tracker thanks to his survivalist father, Shaw travels the U.S. in a Winnebago in search of missing persons. In Berkeley, California, he undertakes an investigation into the disappearance of a teenage girl, a case the local authorities are treating as a simple runaway. It turns out to be anything but. The search leads Shaw to team up with a young female gamer, and it begins to dawn on them that the disappearance bears a striking resemblance to level one of a popular internet survival game called “The Whispering Man.” When a second disappearance occurs, their suspicions seem to be confirmed, except now the unidentified perpetrator has ramped up the difficulty level with an altogether more dangerous and potentially lethal set of outcomes. I would characterize Deaver’s previous novels as mysteries, but The Never Game occupies thriller territory, and it has film adaptation written all over it.

Young Carline Darcy appeared to have it all. Presumptive heir to Darcy Therapeutics, the largest pharmaceutical company in Ireland, by all rights she should have lived a charmed life. But early on, it all went sideways. First, there was her parents’ vitriolic divorce, fueled largely by her selfish and vindictive mother. Then her father was killed in a skiing accident, forcing her to live out her teen years with the unfeeling mother she had rarely seen over the course of her childhood. This personal history comprises the first chapter of Dervla McTiernan’s The Scholar, setting the stage for what’s to come. Fast-forward eight years, and Carline is a university student and researcher. One evening when Darcy Therapeutics medical researcher Emma Sweeney is returning home, she comes upon the dead body of a young woman, the apparent victim of a hit-and-run. Emma summons her boyfriend, Detective Cormac Reilly, to the scene. They are shocked to discover that the ID card carried by the corpse identifies her as Carline Darcy. And if they are shocked, it doesn’t hold a candle to the media frenzy about to be set loose. As the evidence mounts, it becomes increasingly clear that there is involvement on the part of Darcy Therapeutics and perhaps even Emma, whose “discovery” of the body is entirely too convenient for some people to swallow. Cormac must walk the fine line between loyalty to his lover and loyalty to the force, a path liberally strewn with land mines by the fiendishly clever McTiernan.

“Stone mothers” was a Victorian epithet for mental institutions, implying that within their stone walls help and nurturing could be found for those in need. In reality, of course, the opposite was often true. Stone Mothers is also the title of Erin Kelly’s latest thriller, set in and around a now-closed mental institution in the remote fictional town of Nusstead, England. Marianne Thackeray is no stranger to mental illness–her mother suffers from dementia, and her daughter hovers on the brink of mental instability as well. Marianne grew up in the shadow of Nazareth Mental Hospital, but she left some 30 years ago and made a good life for herself and her family. Now she is being dragged back to the town she escaped, first to assist her mother, then (rather more ominously) as a blackmail victim for a long-ago act that she thought would never again see the light of day. Before long, a former lover will become an enemy, a former enemy will become an unlikely ally, and the reader will be exposed to institutional horrors that make One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest look as inviting as Disneyland. It’s disturbing to the max, but hey, that’s what we read thrillers for, right?

TOP PICK
It’s Christmastime in the U.K., and all the cops are hoping that maybe this will be the year they’ll get to spend the holidays with their families. It is not to be. “Everything is slack, unurgent. It all smacks of…

FictionSpeculative Fiction

Book Clubs: May 2019

Feature by Julie Hale

TOP PICK
Sheila Heti’s brave, unflinching novel Motherhood tells the story of one woman’s indecision about having children. The book’s unnamed narrator, a writer approaching the age of 40, is surrounded by friends who are starting families. She lives in Toronto with Miles, her boyfriend, who has a daughter from another relationship. In the midst of this domesticity, she’s plagued by uncertainty about reproducing. She’s honest about her ambivalence but fearful that she’ll one day regret not having kids of her own. Heti combines poignant first-person storytelling with a compassionate consideration of the traditions and implications of motherhood. The novel is a rich meditation on society’s expectations, personal agency and the evolving roles of women. Selected as a best book of 2018 by the New York Times and NPR, this provocative novel is sure to resonate with female readers, regardless of parental status.

Transcription by Kate Atkinson
Enlisted by England’s MI5 at the age of 18, Juliet Armstrong becomes enmeshed in a web of espionage and betrayal that will haunt her for a lifetime in Atkinson’s thrilling World War II novel.

The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner
When Romy Hall kills her stalker, she gets slapped with two life sentences. The story of her transition to life in a California correctional facility makes for a riveting read in Kushner’s latest novel.

Severance by Ling Ma
In Ma’s haunting, satirical take on the apocalypse, a young Chinese-American woman continues to live and work in Manhattan despite a fever that spreads across the globe and turns victims into zombies.

There There by Tommy Orange
Orange’s impressive debut chronicles the struggles and triumphs of 12 Native American characters in California, offering a complex, compelling look at contemporary Native life.

Sheila Heti’s brave, unflinching novel Motherhood tells the story of one woman’s indecision about having children.
NonfictionEducationCookbooks

Great gifts for grads

Feature by Alice Cary

With plenty of observations on success, love and health, The Algebra of Happiness offers concise, invaluable lessons on how to create a joy-filled life. Author and NYU professor Scott Galloway gives glimpses into his own experiences, like how he was initially rejected from UCLA but later wrote the admissions office, got accepted and then ended up founding nine firms and being named one of the “World’s 50 Best Business School Professors.” But that kind of success isn’t everything: “In the end,” Galloway concludes, “relationships are all that matter.”

For more on living well, you can’t go wrong with The Atlas of Happiness. Expanding on the hygge craze, happiness researcher Helen Russell takes readers on a world tour, presenting “a catalog of cultural customs” on living well. This attractive, intriguing book—chock-full of colorful illustrations and breezy, informative essays—will be enjoyed by all, young or old. 

Those who are college-bound may want to put How to College at the top of their summer reading list. This no-nonsense, comprehensive guide covers everything from term papers to roommates and on-campus health care. Author and professor Andrea Malkin Brenner knows the nitty-gritty, having created American University’s first-year experience course. This book is well-organized and packed with tips, illustrated charts and useful exercises.

The way to a college student’s heart is often through their stomach, and at some point cafeteria food is bound to get tiresome. Katie Sullivan Morford’s Prep is the perfect antidote, filled with plenty of basics and crystal-clear instructions. Recipes include dishes like Spicy Sweet Potato Rounds and Mix-in-the-Pan Applesauce Cake (with frosting!), while other chapters cover topics like “Fix a Killer Plate of Pasta” and “Turn a Pot of Beans Into a Meal.” This is a wonderful crash course in Cooking 101.

Got a graduate in your life? Give the priceless gift of wisdom with one of these four books.
NonfictionParentingMemoir

The fine art of parenting while female

Feature by Julie Hale

The connection we share with our mothers—and/or the state of being a mother ourselves—can range from loving and reverential to difficult and draining. No matter how you feel about motherhood, these books offer insight for all. 

In his compelling memoir, Mama’s Boy: A Story of Our Americas, Dustin Lance Black, writer of the Oscar-winning screenplay Milk, chronicles the life of his brave, determined mother, Anne, and the evolution of their relationship. Anne was born into a family of poor Louisiana sharecroppers and was paralyzed by polio as a child, yet she went on to have a fulfilling career and marry three times. She brought up Black and his two brothers in a Mormon household, which led to friction as Black came of age in the 1980s, grappling with his identity and concealing his sexual orientation from Anne and the rest of his family. But as he entered film school and became involved in the gay marriage movement, he and Anne discovered common ground. The story he tells is one of perseverance, acceptance and, ultimately, hope. “If my mom and I could find the bridges between us, then perhaps our neighbors and those closest to us could too,” he writes. “Perhaps we could live on a higher plane than politics.” 

A group of today’s leading authors explore freighted family bonds in What My Mother and I Don’t Talk About: Fifteen Writers Break the Silence. Assembled by Michele Filgate, a contributing editor at Literary Hub, this stirring collection of essays offers diverse takes on the ties that bind mother and child. In “Her Body/My Body,” Nayomi Munaweera recalls growing up in a family that, due to her unstable mother, was filled with upheaval and violence. André Aciman shares poignant memories of his deaf mother in “Can You Hear Me?” Filgate, in the book’s powerful title essay, writes about the stepfather who abused her and how his actions affected her mother. Other contributors include Alexander Chee, Carmen Maria Machado and Kiese Laymon. Readers seeking to make sense of their own family histories will find much to savor in these eloquent, insightful essays.

The incomparable Anna Quindlen explores a modified form of motherhood in her delightful new memoir, Nanaville: Adventures in Grandparenting. With the arrival of little Arthur, the child of her eldest son, Quindlen writes, “I became something different than I’d ever been before.” As a grandmother, she finds fresh use for her maternal skills and works to redefine her place in the family, a process that proves at times to be bittersweet. “We were mother and father, most of us, before we became grandmother and grandfather,” she writes. “And because of that it is sometimes hard to accept that we have been pushed slightly to the perimeter.” Along with sharing episodes from her time as a newly minted nana, she contemplates developments in childrearing and reflects on her own past as a mom. Quindlen puts her stamp on topics that are timeless, and her faithful followers will welcome this revealing, beautifully crafted account of family life.

Journalist Dani McClain delivers an electrifying assessment of contemporary parenting in We Live for the We: The Political Power of Black Motherhood. Given the current social climate, “motherhood is deeply political,” McClain says, as black mothers contend with inadequate healthcare and widespread racial prejudice. A frequent contributor to The Nation and Slate, McClain herself is the mother of a young daughter, and she wrote We Live for the We as an exploration of how best to raise a black girl in today’s world. McClain interviews activist mothers working to bring about social change to find out how they’re handling parenthood. The perspectives of these women—artists and academics, health care workers and teachers—are honest and heartfelt. McClain structures the text around the life of a child, moving from babyhood to the tween years and beyond while looking at parenting issues such as education, religion and sex. Earnest and inspiring, We Live for the We offers invaluable guidance for bringing up the next generation of black Americans.

Providing a weird, wonderful overview of family life in the 19th century, Ungovernable: The Victorian Parent’s Guide to Raising Flawless Children is a catalog of extremely questionable child-rearing techniques collected by brilliant satirist Therese Oneill. She presents this strange-but-true slice of Victorian life in the form of a Q&A between a genial narrator advocating for old-school approaches and a somewhat befuddled modern-day mother. “Here you will learn about discipline, morals, and the devastating repercussions of allowing a child to eat fruit,” Oneill writes. (In Victorian times, fruit was thought to be harmful to youngsters.) Typical disciplinary measures included dunking a child’s head in a water barrel, spankings and, in the classroom, the use of a dunce cap. Mothers who take themselves to task for being imperfect parents need only peruse Ungovernable to feel better about their efforts.

The connection we share with our mothers—and/or the state of being a mother ourselves—can range from loving and reverential to difficult and draining. No matter how you feel about motherhood, these books offer insight for all. 

In his compelling memoir, Mama’s Boy: A…

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