5 Books That Should Be On Your Radar: December 2014
By Daniel Ford
Every month, the Writer’s Bone crew reviews or previews books we've read or want to read. This series may or may not also serve as a confessional for guilty pleasures and hipster novels only the brave would attempt. Feel free to share your own suggestions in the comments section or tweet us @WritersBone.
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
This finalist for the National Book Award is landing on just about every top 10 list for 2014 and with good reason. All the Light We Cannot See, which tells the tale of a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France during World War II, contains so many perfect sentences that I constantly question how a lowly human could have produced it. Here are two of my favorites:
Marie-Laurie can hear a can opening, juice slopping into a bowl. Seconds later, she’s eating wedges of sunlight.
As if, at every meal, the cadets fill their tin cups not with the cold mineralized water of Schulpforta but with a spirit that leaves them glazed and dazzled, as if they ward off a vast and inevitable tidal wave of anguish only by staying forever drunk on rigor exercise and gleaming boot leather.
Every chapter is a lyrical surprise that raises your spirit right before it breaks your heart. I have less than 150 pages to read and I don’t want it to end.
A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
Only my older brother can make fun of me for reading Thirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp David one moment and then recommend this history book the next.
Here’s the overview from Barnes & Noble:
Drawing on the diaries of a midwife and healer in eighteenth-century Maine, this intimate history illuminates the medical practices, household economies, religious rivalries, and sexual mores of the New England frontier.
Yup, that’ll get the history nerd juices flowing.
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
After lusting after this Hemingway Library Edition for months, I now hold it in my hands at this very moment. I must confess I have never read Hemingway’s first novel, but that didn’t stop me from drooling over a $85,000 copy at the 2014 Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair.
This copy features early drafts, deleted passages, and other titles Hemingway drew up before setting on The Sun Also Rises. I haven’t been this excited about an extended edition since Peter Jackson’s "Return of the King," which featured the mouth of Sauron.
Pronto by Elmore Leonard
Simply because it has been far too long since we last included Leonard on a list and for the fact it’s my favorite novel featuring Raylan Givens. This needs to be a film (preferably not one based on the 1997 television movie) ASAP.
Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon
This novel might be incredibly hard to read, but it could be worth it. Writer’s Bone essayist Dave Pezza recommended it to me, and I’m intrigued by the premise. Pynchon tells the story of British surveyors Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon as they cause a ruckus on both sides of the line that bears their name. What makes the book a challenge is that Pynchon writes as if he’s living in the 18th century. Fuck me; writing this must have sucked. My hope is that Pychon stayed in character and lived, spoke, and drank like a man from the 1700s.
Bonus: The Best Book I Read in 2014
The more I wrestled with this decision, the clearer my answer became. I loved Matthew Thomas’ We Are Not Ourselves, Scott Cheshire’s High as the Horses’ Bridle, Charles M. Blow’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones, Steph Post’s A Tree Born Crooked, John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces, Joshua Ferris’ The Unnamed, Peter Sherwood’s The Murdery Delicious Hamwich Gumm Mystery: A Comedy of Terrors, Stephen King’s The Shining, and Jeff Shaara’s Gods and Generals, however, one book floored me more than all the others. And that novel is…
2 A.M. at the Cat’s Pajama’s by Marie-Helene Bertino! If you haven’t read it yet, make it part of your New Year’s resolution!
5 Books That Should Be On Your Radar: October 2014
Every month, the Writer’s Bone crew reviews or previews books we've read or want to read. This series may or may not also serve as a confessional for guilty pleasures and hipster novels only the brave would attempt. Feel free to share your own suggestions in the comments section or tweet us @WritersBone.
Never Can Say Goodbye: Writers on Their Unshakable Love for New York by Sari Botton
Lindsey Wojcik: I can't tell you much about this book yet, because it just came out yesterday and I haven't started it. But I finished Sari Botton's first anthology Goodbye to All That, and as much as that was a love letter to New York City, it was mostly about moving on from life in New York City and sometimes coming back—and, after five years living in the city, I totally related to the desire to flee it. From what I've read on Botton's follow up, it's even more of a love letter to the city. The phrase "unshakable love" is on the cover, for goodness sake. Anyone with even a questionable love or appreciation for the city will undoubtedly fall back in love with it in this new set of essays.
Chump Change by David Eddie
Daniel Ford: Speaking of leaving New York City, Sean Tuohy was right when he said David Eddie’s Chump Change had me written all over it. The first line of the book: “I’m a failure.” That effectively sucked me in. There’s a great scene where Eddie’s character—who has been chewed up by New York City—says goodbye to the woman he’d been seeing. He wants to make it a clean break, but he’s so screwed up, he leaves the relationship in a weird state of limbo. The worst part is that he’s so poor, she has to buy his ticket back to Toronto. “A new low,” the character says, “I have to borrow from my girlfriend to leave her.” The adventures that follow are best enjoyed with some low grade alcohol.
2 A.M. at the Cat’s Pajamas by Marie-Helene Bertino
Daniel: This book is quite simply a complete treasure from start to finish. There is music playing in your head from the moment you open the book until you finish it in a white heat two days later without any sleep in between. It is the rare book that combines exquisitely drawn characters, a swift, meaningful plot, and innovative prose. I honestly did not want the book to end, and I’m sure I’ll be revisiting it in the near future. If you need a constant surprise in your life, pick this book up immediately. I can’t recommend it highly enough. I very much look forward to Bertino’s next novel (hurry up!).
A Cold and Broken Hallelujah by Tyler Dilts
Daniel: Sean Tuohy knows a thing or two about crime stories. When he recommends a novel that has anything to do with detectives, crime, or heart-pounding action, you listen.
A Cold and Broken Hallelujah by @tylerdilts one of the best thrillers out there now. It's crack for a crime reader. Pick it up!
— Writer's Bone (@WritersBone) October 2, 2014
Sean knows a thing or two about crack too, so his metaphor must be legit (just kidding, he was just a drug mule). When I asked him what made this novel in particular so special, his response was surprising: “He spends a lot of time on the victim of the crime.”
Say no more Sean, I’m in.
You Are One of Them by Elliott Holt
Daniel: Writer’s Bone contributor Hailey Reissman recommended Elliott Holt’s novel You Are One of Them a couple of weeks ago and, I have to admit, the premise didn’t immediately grab me. Two friends growing up in Washington D.C. during the Cold War write to Soviet premier Yuri Andropov asking for peace. Only one of the friend’s letters receives a response, leading that friend to head to the USSR for a meeting with Andropov, which pisses the other friend off to no end. The two are still estranged when one of them dies in a plane crash with her parents. However, it turns out said friend might not be dead. Mystery ensues.
Who am I kidding? This book sounds exactly like something I would pick up on one of my daily trips to Barnes & Noble (I have a serious problem). This book is also inspired by the true story of Samantha Smith, which satisfies the non-fiction reader in me as well. If that all wasn’t enough, I made the mistake of reading the prologue while I was invested in another book. It hit all the right notes ensuring that I’ll be devouring this novel in short order. Holt is yet another author to watch closely.
Other books worth checking out: A Tree Born Crooked by Steph Post, Sway by Kat Spears, Ecstatic Cahoots by Stuart Dybek, and A Walk Among the Tombstones by Lawrence Block