Even though we know you probably won’t be reading on a plane this summer and maybe not even on a beach, if you’re a reader, you’re likely still hungry for some more recommendations, and we like to oblige.
Uncanny Valley
by Anna Weiner
The New York Times review
This one is a memoir of the author’s time in customer support in Silicon Valley. It’s a good companion piece to The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, written from the insider viewpoint. It’s also a good non-fiction take for anyone who enjoyed Dave Egger’s The Circle or Hulu’s recent limited series, Devs. Silicon Valley is a big part of our cultural zeitgeist, and we all think we know what’s happening there with so much media and artistic coverage. It’s interesting to get a smaller, more intimate take on what it’s like to be immersed as a newcomer to the culture. As Ms. Weiner’s tale unfolds, it pulls the reader along and makes her growth from innocence to awareness parallel with our own journey as readers. As her worry and doubts grow, ours do as well. No company is identified by name, although all are identifiable, but it’s a writing quirk that serves the subject of isolation well as the memoir unfolds.
Feast Your Eyes
by Myla Goldberg
The New York Times review
As 2020 forces so many people to desperately re-juggle work and family life, this story of a young photographer raising her daughter may resonate in ways a reader would not have felt six months ago. Much like A Hundred Suns, reviewed below, we know the peril coming and then are immediately thrown back to the start of the story, where Lillian begins, even before Samantha arrives. We also know that Lillian will die in early middle age, so the story is told photo by photo as the show catalogue, with old friends, lovers, Samantha, and Lillian herself speaking from her journals and letters. The unusual approach suits the life story of a photographer and mother always more comfortable watching other people than being on center stage herself. One of the hooks in the story is a Sally Mann backstory with a series of photos of young Sam taken in some degrees of undress (as young children naturally choose to be at home). I really did enjoy this book, and think it is an overlooked gem. The photo controversy makes alone makes it a great book for discussion.
Long Bright River
by Liz Moore
The Washington Post review
Like The Godmother reviewed below, this book is marketed as a thriller, and it delivers completely on that front (movie rights sold to Amy Pascal—Molly’s Game and The Post—and Neal Moritz—of Fast and the Furious fame). It’s also the story of a family, primarily two sisters. One is a missing drug addict while the other is a cop, while a serial killer appears to be ramping up attacks on women, with some focus on living an honorable life. (I don’t seek out to find books about families and strong women, but lately that theme keeps popping up.) If you were a fan of Dennis Lehane’s Mystic River (as a book or a movie), then this novel should be in the pile by your bed. There are a lot of twists to this story, but it’s all held together with likable characters and good writing. Perfect vacation book—you’ll race through this.
Valentine
by Elizabeth Wetmore
The Washington Post review
I picked this up from some hot new book list, expecting some easy Texas noir, like Nic Pizzolatto’s debut novel, Galveston. And while the first chapter might start you down that path, Valentine takes a fast turn into the To Kill A Mockingbird territory of racism and justice. But as you settle into this story, it continues to surprise. With many different points of view, this novel gives voice to a lot of strong women, and seems in the end to be a deeper musing on morality, class, and what it means to be a woman in the ’70s oil-boom society that regards the brawn of men as the only valuable commodity. All the women have strong voices and they don’t agree—in fact, they don’t always have the same story to tell the reader about the facts, so there’s book club discussion fodder there as well.
Flight Portfolio
by Julie Orringer
The New York Times review
In our era with so many refugees fleeing climate change, war, and corruption, it’s hard not to see the echoes in World War II books like Flight Portfolio. Who’s worth saving and who is not, and how do you live in a world where you cannot save everyone? Based on a real American war effort by a man, Varian Fry, working for the American Emergency Rescue Committee, the book gives you some information that was all new to me. Tasked to save the great artists and writers by helping them escape, the book focuses on a fictional relationship to walk us through the story. I have a pretty high bar for anything that fits into the sub-genre I think of as “heroic escape from the Nazis”—I’m looking for great literature if I’m going to spend more time in this part of history, and this book, meticulously researched, was worth the repeat. Think Schindler’s List but much more consideration of the moral subtleties when you are carefully choosing who you might approach to help escape with very limited time, power, and budget. Reading this the last few months, I imagine some of the story may particularly resonate with health care workers in hard-hit areas of the world, where the same calculus was deployed in allocating resources.
A Hundred Suns
by Karin Tanabe
NPR Review
This was a quick read, as close to a simple beach read as we typically get in these recommendations. Knowing nothing about ’30s Indochine going in, this was an interesting primer on the basics of Michelin rubber and the Michelin industries in French history. The story centers on the American teacher wife of a distant Michelin cousin. It quickly gives you a mystery, gets your heart pounding, then calmly backs up a few months to give you a shot at figuring out what’s happening and why. Another one that’s likely to be snapped up for development as a film or series. If you like Babylon Berlin on Netflix, you’ll enjoy this book.
Greenwood
by Michael Christie
The Guardian review
The family saga here is a wild ride, built around the Canadian lumber forests. The book is organized like the rings of a tree, starting in the near future and moving progressively further back to unveil another layer of the family, and then slowly forward again after the midpoint to get us back to the nearby future. The family stories are each a movie unto themselves—rare in a book like this that you aren’t full of questions, wanting to get back to earlier pressing questions. Greenwood keeps you riveted on the current story, even as you see missing pieces fall into place. Full of people I won’t forget, I think it most reminded me of the best of John Irving’s books. Don’t be fooled by the opening sequence—the near future is a bit of climate change dystopia, and if that’s not your kind of book, push through and you will be amply rewarded. This is one of those books you read and you will swear it was a movie you saw—the visuals are so vividly brought to life through the writing, it seems clear you must have seen sets and actors in wardrobe.
Doxology
by Nell Zink
The New York Times review
Focused on a a young couple, Pamela and Daniel, in late ’80s NYC who accidentally have a baby while they and their friends live the life of young artists. The story runs all the way up the present, as the multi-generation story that branches off in several directions. Every bit of the story is fun, every sentence is a joy, and while there are many characters, it’s never hard to keep track of them. I think, like many family sagas, the book is about lost innocence, but it’s not nostalgic for a false past. It suggests life is messy and only the people we love really matter—whatever the losses, in the end it was a life well-lived and that’s what matters.
Celine
by Peter Heller
NPR review
Peter Heller’s books are always a terrific read, and Celine is no exception. (I desperately wanted to mail this book to Jane Fonda and beg her to make a movie of this with herself as the star.) Celine is yet another accidental detective, but she works only to reunite families. Like so many detectives her motivations aren’t entirely pure—she’s got sins in her past for which she feels she should atone. Set against a backdrop of many of the best of American landscapes, Celine and her romantic partner, Peter, have a strikingly great relationship—one that made me realize how few detectives ever have that backstory. As they journey through America on the trail of a missing father, Celine makes reference to other mysteries they’ve tackled, and while this book is a standalone, you may find yourself wishing they were their own books. I think those throwaway references, never fully explained, add to the intimacy of the book—like the shorthand you have with a good friend of long standing. If you end up liking this, while the characters do not repeat, all his books are well worth your time. (Our family all liked The Dog Star so much, we discovered our older son had appropriated our copy as part of his permanent library when he left for college.)
Little Eyes
by Samantha Schweblin
If you read Schweblin’s Fever Dream, you know she’s not a science fiction writer. If you didn’t I feel the need to tell you this book isn’t SciFi or an alternate reality. Only one detail differs from our modern day—a consumer product known as a kentuki exists. Translated from the Spanish, this book takes us all over the world in the modern day as people open their kentukis. Each one is good for one partnership only, with one person having physical possession of the small, furry companion, while another person, anonymously, controls the (unspeaking), motorized, webcam-containing kentuki. While it reads like dystopian fiction, we see how the kentukis fill a void, sometimes unhealthily, for lonely people all over the world. What happens when you share all of your life with a stranger? Are you more connected or more isolated? A really interesting look at our current society and social media, shown through a plausible extension of our current set of social network choices.
Men We Reaped
by Jessamyn Ward
The Guardian review
I’m a big fan of Ms. Ward’s fiction, and I knew this book covered her life in Mississippi. I bought this a few years ago to better understand how a writer’s life impacts their art, and for an honest account of life under the American poverty line, although, as many book buyers can relate, it took a while to percolate up to the top of the pile. Keeping in mind I’ve always been a Faulkner fan, the American South has always seemed fascinatingly hard to understand. I lurk around the edges, scooping up authors of fiction and non-fiction who might help me understand. It turns out there is no better guide than Jessamyn Ward. With two National Book Awards under her belt already, she’s a writer who is part of the American canon, and this book is a riveting read, although it is inevitably tragic as she loses five men in her life, one by one, in as many years—a loss unimaginable to most Americans. While the book was written in 2013, it’s particularly interesting now to listen to now, as discussions of social inequality, racism, and sexism are front and center in the headlines. This is a book about managing to live and celebrate life while also reeling from unremitting grief.
The Godmother
by Hannelore Cayre
The New York Times review
This book is destined to be a movie, and the rights have already been sold, so read it fast. It’s a short book, a very quick read, translated from the French. It’s ostensibly a Breaking Bad scenario—an aging, regular woman protagonist has an economic need, sees an opportunity in the drug trade, and takes it. On that level the story is a lot of fun—a fast-paced, action-packed thrill-ride. You can leave it there and walk away. (This book is so short, it wouldn’t fill a San Diego to New York flight for most readers. In fact, it’s so captivating and so short, if you start one night you may kip sleeping to finish.) But it spends just enough sidelong glances down dark alleys not taken to show how the systemic prejudice against the poor, foreign, and even women breaks down overall society, so you don’t have to log it in the guilt pleasures column.
Claire Dewitt and the City of the Dead
by Sara Gran
Kirkus Reviews
I picked this up thinking it was a detective novel set in New Orleans, but it’s a book about a lot of different mysteries. Claire’s solving one crime now, while her life is built around a long-gone missing childhood friend, and there’s a wild meta discussion about what it means to be a detective and a mystery. The writing is top-notch, and in true Southern Gothic and noir traditions, things are bad, getting worse, and yet Claire doggedly tries to alleviate human suffering as a result of the unknown as best she can, while carrying her own pain—all of that in a post-Katrina New Orleans. Satisfying read for mystery lovers, but the book has such a love of language, it’s great for people who love a little quality. It’s an unusual book, and as you can see from our link above, there aren’t many mainstream reviews. This one is a hidden gem from about 10 years ago (now there a few others in the series). It’s a book you’ll love or hate for its experiments—it defies categorization, but it suits New Orleans and there’s no denying Sara Gran’s writing talent. I’ve yet to have anyone dislike it, but it’s odd enough that it would be a tough book for book club to pick apart. For the adventurous reader.
Summer Reading 2024
/ in Books /We hope you have a terrific summer, with a little downtime here and there.
Big Time
by Ben H. Winters
Publishers Weekly review
If you’re a long-time reader of our reviews, Susan is a big fan of Ben Winters’ The Last Policeman trilogy. (And not just because there’s a scene with a BD Pyxis in one of the books.) Big Time is a thriller with a sci-fi twist, with a hero, Grace Berney, who’s a mid-level claim examiner at the FDA living with her teen-aged daughter and her aging mom. Grace is asked to help identify an unconscious young woman through the registration of a specialized port installed in her chest. Like any informational search in the age of infinite databases, she ends up down a wormhole and begins to suspect a highly unusual medical procedure may be happening off-label. Racing against a particularly ruthless assassin, she struggles to find the answers, before time (literally) runs out. The book’s a delightful thriller, perfect for fans of Killing Eve and Breaking Bad. It’s a particularly fun premise to have an ordinary desk jockey from the FDA turn action hero.
The Bee Sting
by Paul Murray
The New York Times review
The Bee Sting is a heartbreaker of a book. It’s the story of the Barnes family told from different family member perspectives as the action moves forward. It’s like watching a horror movie and hoping the actors don’t go into that room or open that door. A tragic Irish tale, with shades of climate change blending with the global financial crash of 2008. The writing is as propulsive as the action, although the characters are looking backwards, gradually spilling all the family/neighborhood secrets. Reads like a thriller. Fair warning, the ending is open to interpretation, making it a book you want to discuss. Excellent book club pick.
The Running Grave
by Robert Galbraith
The Guardian review
The Cormoran Strike books tend to be long and full of entertaining twists and turns. (You may also know this as the C. B. Strike TV series on Showtime—the novels read like bingeable TV shows.) Cormoran and Robin are a great pair of detectives, with a will-they-or-won’t-they romance, and Galbraith doesn’t shy away from difficult back stories. Anything in the novels that touches on the ugly side of celebrity rings very true, and all aspects of the stories are meticulously researched. (Galbraith is a pseudonym for J. K. Rowling, never one to shy from detailed complications or a long page count.) The Running Grave’s action is centered on a potential cult, on a farm Strike lived briefly as part of his itinerant, unstable childhood. A great mystery, moving back and forth decades, with terrific characters, it leaves you guessing right up to the end. (This series is also well done as audio books, read by the actor Robert Glenister, with the warning that the immediately previous book, The Ink Black Heart, is full of texts and emails which tend to make for boring audio book sections.)
The Palliser Novels
by Anthony Trollope
We’re deviating from format here and not posting a review—largely because the most famous contemporary review of the first book in the series, Can You Forgive Her?, by Henry Janes, was quite scathing. On the other hand, for a newspaper serial published in the 1860s, the first book deals with no less a feminist issue than what a woman should do with her life. (The main character, Alice Vavasor, must be forgiven for changing her mind and back again about who she wants to marry.) Here are six books in the series, and they are a delight all the way through, whether reading like longer Jane Austin marriage plot novels or as a satirical look at British politics. Phineas Finn adds in a murder trial and an angry journalist, with the final novel, The Duke’s Children, covering recurring character, Plantagenet Palliser, the Duke of Omnium, and his evolving relationship with his newly adult children. A delightful escape in many ways although the questions of what government or spouse might best suit you, how one might live within one’s income, and how to transition a parenting relationship with new adults are all very relevant.
All the Sinners Bleed
by S. A. Crosby
The New York Times review (by Stephen King)
S. A. Crosby is a rapidly rising star, note that the review is written by Stephen King. All the Sinners Bleed is his fourth book, no recurring characters, and it’s the best yet. He brings small town America to life in all his mysteries, but this one verges on a horror novel as the story unfolds. If you loved the first season of True Detective, and anything else you’d identify as southern noir, this book is not to be missed. It’s a plot full of twists. Don’t start reading if you need to be up early tomorrow morning—you will certianly read past your bedtime. Perfect if your vacation has a rainy day or excessive heat that keeps you indoors.
The Future
by Naomi Alderman
The Washington Post review
The Future is a darkly funny take on the end of the world as experienced by tech billionaires and their associates. Martha Einkorn grew up in a cult—turns out that leaves you with excellent survival skills as well as the right mindset to maneuver social media. As a child, Lai Zehn escaped the fall of Hong Kong and survived years in a British refugee camp, making her living now as a survivalist influencer. Their paths are about to cross just as the world might be about to end. (Alderman’s no stranger to selling movie/TV rights to her work, there’s no doubt this will become a movie or limited series.)
Time’s Mouth
by Edan Lepucki
The New York Times review
Time’s Mouth is set in a Santa Cruz commune led by a time-traveling feminist, who carries the time-traveling gene. This novel is more about family, love, and our inheritances. Lepucki’s use of time travel through memory as a genetic inheritance provides the bell jar experience of looking back—as we examine our history we tend to distort it through our own bias. She proposes an alternative where considering the past with no knowledge and no bias could mean you begin to change the future (shades of H. G. Wells’ Butterfly Effect). Time’s Mouth is a family story full of missed connections, and despite the sci-fi nature of the plot device, it has a great deal in common with a family saga like The Bee Sting.
Wellness
by Nathan Hill
NPR review
Another family story, with no tricks at all. Wellness is an American partner to The Bee Sting, taking place just before the 2008 global financial crisis, covering Elizabeth Augustine’s and Jack Baker’s marriage. From their first sight of each other to early dates to the storm of managing two careers, a young child, and the building of a new home. It’s a terrible time for the couple to reflect on their earlier lives and dig up old traumas. The Atlanticwrote “And his book makes a better case than I’ve come across in a long time for the uniquely transporting experience of reading a long, digressive novel bursting with ideas and observations.” This very much why we recommend the Trollope novels, so if you don’t think you can enjoy 19th century English life, this book is the better fit for you. (Or have both, unlike candy and cupcakes, no one ever thinks badly of you if you read too many books on vacation.)
Where the Light Falls
by Nancy Hale
Kirkus Reviews
Susan felt a little lazy one afternoon at 4 p.m. and thought she’d see if ChatGPT could write the one paragraph book review. And it did, but everything it said was a lie. It completely hallucinated a review of a book of interlinked family stories across three generations of women! So, right now, we feel good about job security in the storytelling business.
The truth is that Nancy Hale was a writer of great note in her era, regularly published in The New Yorker. Over 80 stories appeared there over several decades—she published 12 of them from July 1954-July 1955, the standing record for the most stories in a year—and the winner of 10 O. Henry Awards. No one seems to know why, but she was out of print and out of mind. The Library of America decided to rectify the situation by releasing this collection of 25 of her stories introduced by Lauren Groff.
And a reminder for one that has raves from everyone who picked it up from our last set of reviews:
Lavinia
by Ursula K. LeGuin
A retelling of the second half of Virgil’s Aeneid from a new perspective: Lavinia, who becomes the last wife of Aeneas. Lavinia is named in the Aeneid, but little else, and the novelist cleverly manages to let a pious, unmarried king’s daughter converse with the shadow of the dying poet through the centuries and miles that separate them. She tells us her story, overlapping the end of the epic poem and moving forward to tell us what perhaps may have happened later. It’s a beautiful story about love and the future and uncertainty even when you think you know what comes next—for both the reader and Lavinia herself. And a little bit about friendships between very different people. Just a beautiful, perfect little novel, even without the powerful roots in epic poetry and one of history’s great war heroes. RIYL Madeline Miller and Jennifer Saint.
Spring Reading 2024
/ in Books, Podcasts /As you can see by the parking lot in that photo, everybody seems to have taken this week off, so we thought we better get some new recommendations up right away. We’ve got a few new ones here, but we also strongly recommend our Winter 2023 links to lots of book recommendation sites. (And one more: If you haven’t seen The Atlantic’s new list, The Great American Novels, it is one part of the internet that’s worth some scrolling time.)
Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution
by Cat Bohannon
By focusing on the biological female body, this non-fiction book adjusts some common, male-led theories concerning human evolution and the development of culture. It’s technically a science book, but if you’re not into science don’t worry. There’s plenty of quirky insights about how we arrived at our contemporary patriarchal society. And if that sounds like a bore to you, there’s some good conversation starters, like how milk evolved from egg mucus and a mother’s hip fat helps a baby’s brain develop appropriately. Overall, it’s a really quick and engaging read that provokes a new way of thinking about humanity. Really, what more could you ask for?
All There Is with Anderson Cooper
When our loved ones die, what’s left behind? For those of us striving to cope with the grief of losing someone—a parent, a sibling, a child—how do we navigate life going forward? Anderson Cooper continues to ask these questions in the second season of his podcast, All There Is, which launched in 2022. New listeners should start with the first season, which opens with Anderson sorting through boxes of family keepsakes. Having lost his father at an early age, and his brother to suicide, he discusses his mother’s death, exploring the depths of loss and what we endure in its wake. Grief, with its heaviness and sorrow and pain, can make us feel like we’re completely alone. And yet, it’s the thing that inevitably binds us all. Is there actually beauty in grief? A profound and moving podcast, listeners should expect both laughter and tears.
The Deaths of Sybil Bolton
by Dennis McAuliffe, Jr.
If you appreciated the book or film, Killers of the Flower Moon, Matt suggests checking out The Deaths of Sybil Bolton: Oil, Greed, and Murder on the Osage Reservation. The author is a journalist and what makes the book interesting is that the history he unearths is his own: McAuliffe grew up believing his grandmother, Sybil Bolton, had died of natural causes, only to learn she was a victim of the systematic killings that plagued the Osage during the Oklahoma oil boom of the 1920s.
Lavinia
by Ursula K Le Guin
A retelling of the second half of Virgil’s Aeneid from a new perspective: Lavinia, who becomes the last wife of Aeneas. Lavinia is named in the Aeneid, but little else, and the novelist cleverly manages to let a pious, unmarried king’s daughter converse with the shadow of the dying poet through the centuries and miles that separate them. She tells us her story, overlapping the end of the epic poem and moving forward to tell us what perhaps may have happened later. It’s a beautiful story about love and the future and uncertainty even when you think you know what comes next—for both the reader and Lavinia herself. Just a beautiful, perfect little novel, even without the powerful roots in epic poetry and one of history’s great war heroes. RIYL Madeline Miller and Jennifer Saint.
Winter Reading 2023
/ in Books /It’s time to make a list so everyone knows what to get you, and for you to shop for people who refuse to give you a list. Well, of course, Susan’s lists, to give and receive, are nothing but books, so here’s how she efficiently tackles the process this time of year. And, we’ve tried to use gift links, so at least the first 10 non-subscribers should be able to access these.
100 Notable Books 2023
The New York Times
We raved about Eleanor Catton’s Birnam Wood this summer, always rave about Ann Patchett (2023’s Tom Lake is no surprise, and we’ve heard the audio book, read by Meryl Streep, is amazing, too.), and are currently partway through Naomi Klein’s Doppelgänger and loving it. Another half dozen of these are sitting on Susan’s bedside bookshelf and more will be added to her wish list after work today.
As a t-shirt on Etsy reads, “It’s not called hoarding when it’s books.” (BTW, Etsy is full of book lover merchandise.)
Books We Love 2023
NPR App
This is the best thing on the internet for book lovers and the people who support their habit. Also, really the one recommendation we are making that helps with shopping for the younger, early school-age crowd. Although, we are going to rave about The Eyes and the Impossible by Dave Eggers for all ages, but oh, to be a parent who gets to read this out loud. I envy you if that happens. (If you want to loan me a child, I’ll read it to them, if it’s not your thing!) The book itself is amazing—much of what McSweeney’s publishes is impossibly beautiful objects as well as great writing. So many great writers in this set of interactive picks. While we haven’t yet read these books, we can vouch for many of the writers: Daniel Mason, S.A. Crosby, Lauren Groff, Dennis Lehane, Colson Whitehead, Anne Enright, Sigrid Nunez, Idra Novey, Catherine Lacey, Zadie Smith, Dwyer Murphy, and James McBride.
10 Best Books of 2023
The Washington Post
The idea that you can pick 10 and just say, “That’s it, these are the best.” well, it‘s a gutsy move (but one that no legal, medical, regulatory review team at our clients’ companies would ever okay). While a little shocked, we also respect the boldness. We’ll let the subscribers in the Comments section dispute the selections. We know some of these writers’s work, and it’s not surprising their newest books are making a list like this. So much so, that if hardcover prices are out of league for your Secret Santa, check out past works by Paul Murray and James McBride in paperback and you definitely won’t have supplied the white elephant gift no one wants.
Fifty Notable Nonfiction 2023
The Washington Post
A little more helpful if you’re shopping, and if it happens to be a healthcare colleague, we particularly want to call out The People’s Hospital: Hope and Peril in American Medicine by Ricardo Nuila.
Fifty Notable Fiction 2023
The Washington Post
Again, fifty is a little more helpful in building a wish or shopping list. Shocking not us, but it appears they’ve got some that NPR didn’t pick, despite no limits on their numbers. We’ll call out Jesmyn Ward’s Let Us Descend and Rafael Frumpkin’s Confidence as the ones that jumped out from our reading.
And, one more time, from our Summer 2023 recommendations, for the reader who has everything, and for whom you cannot ever possibly guess right, we’re confident we have a winner:
The English Understand Wool
by Helen DeWitt
The Washington Post review
If you’re really book nerd, you may know Helen DeWitt as the writer of cult favorite The Last Samurai—no relation to the Tom Cruise movie—(and currently part of Susan’s to-do stack as a result of this books charm). This little novella, really a long short story, has some wild twists and turns and is a complete delight. We know: The title is nothing, you’ve never heard of this writer, the binding looks like a Little Golden Book for a child. Every reason to skip it, but we strongly recommend you seek it out instead. Told by delightfully sophisticated seventeen-year-old Maguerite,—who is a little bit of a snob, very sure of herself and her maman’s teachings,—it’s a joyfully amoral story with a twist. Not to be missed, it’s quite literally laugh-out-loud funny, and despite being quite short, worth the price of hardcover admission. RIYL: James Thurber’s The Catbird Seat, The Sting, Gone Girl, a very good laugh, stories you can re-read regularly.
If buying a book for someone else scares you, consider this leather book weight for a reader of physical books. I read a lot of hardcovers, while also having something to eat or drink, so I use mine almost daily (not on early shoot days).
Summer Reading 2023
/ in Books /We’re always here when you need us for video and photo production, and we know you need a break now and again, so here are some summer vacation reading ideas for 2023. Based in San Diego, we think everything is a beach read, but we try and give you a variety of choices. As always, we have a link for you to click through to longer reviews if you need more information.
Birnham Wood
by Eleanor Catton
The Guardian review
The new novel by the Man Booker Prize writer of The Luminaries, recently streaming via purchase on iTunes. Need more convincing? It’s slyly funny, skewering big chunks of society, from the easy targets of billionaire CEOs and young activists sneaking around to plan crops on unused land to the subtle laughs at long-married couples and New Zealand social mores. A fast-moving plot, willing to laugh at us all, while also seriously considering how hard it is to be a force for good in the world right now. RIYL Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, conspiracy theories, idealism vs corruption stories, or Demon Copperhead.
Romantic Comedy
by Curtis Sittenfeld
The New York Times review
I’ve been a fan of Sittenfeld’s since her first novel, Prep, and she doesn’t disappoint here. She does seem to alternate her novels between more serious literary fiction (e.g., American Wife) and rollicking fun romps (e.g., Eligible). This is in the romp category—a bright, ordinary looking woman writer for a long-running live comedy show in NYC is shocked to sense a mutual attraction with this week’s dual-purpose musical guest/host. You’ll think a lot about how guys like Colin Jost and Pete Davidson end up with movie and music stars, and why can’t that happen to anyone smart and interesting. Pure escapism, ideal for a vacation. RIYL Saturday Night Live biographies, romantic comedies, Lessons in Chemistry.
I Have Some Questions for You
by Rebecca Makkai
NPR review
This one is the new novel by National Book and Pulitzer Prize finalist writer of The Great Believers, Rebecca Makkai. A successful podcaster comes back to the boarding school of her youth to teach a short class and starts digging into a 20-year-old murder of a classmate where the wrong man may have been convicted. But the book is so much more than the thrilling surface story—it digs into everything that’s changed in our discussions about justice and harassment in the last 30 years. The plot is a clear, straight line, but it will make you examine your own life as Bodie jumps from things in the past with an adult eye shaped by the last few years in America. There’s a kind of chorus of famous dead girl stories that she narrates every time she overhears a conversation or skims a website headline, and it will tear your heart out as you realize you know what she’s talking about every single time. RIYL Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, season one of Serial, murder podcasts, boarding school, super smart novels, or Alice Bolin’s Dead Girls or Alexis Schaitkin’s Saint X.
The Sun Walks Down
by Fiona McFarlane
Kirkus Reviews review
Built around the search for a missing six-year-old boy in 1880s colonial Australia, we come to learn a lot about everyone in town, all the backstories and how they are entwined. It reminded me a lot of Eleanor Catton’s The Luminaries (set in 1860s New Zealand). Not just the rural setting, but the concept of the central mystery plot being second to the cast of characters, their motivations, and their interactions. And, of course, the top-notch writing. I do have to confess that a blurb from writer and bookseller Ann Patchett is a sure-fire book purchase lure. RIYL Shute’s A Town Like Alice, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Louise Penny’s Chief Inspector Gamache series.
An Honest Living
by Dwyer Murphy
The New York Times review
A debut novel, set in 2005 NYC, written with tremendous style as a classic noir. Our hero tangles with the rich, the famous, the art scene, and a little bit of romance. After being hired by an unhappy wife to dig a bit deeper into some potentially fraudulent rare book dealing, our narrator finds out that the wife he met isn’t really the wife. So why hire him? Why worry about the fraud? Why spend the money? RIYL Jack Nicholson in Chinatown, Jeff Bridges in Against All Odds, Ross McDonald, John Dunning’s Cliff Janeaway series (or if you’re a corporate lawyer who thinks about the paths not taken).
Trustee from the Toolroom
by Nevil Shute
Kirkus Reviews review
An oldie, from 1960, literally older than everyone at LYON, but a really great, old-fashioned novel. Shute was a prolific writer, more popular in his native England and Australia, but most people will have encountered his classics: A Town Like Alice and/or On the Beach. He’s an old-fashioned writer with a strong sense of honor and decency. Our hero, Keith Stewart, lives an ordinary life, writing on small-scale mechanics for a far-flung network of hobbyists. His young niece comes to stay while his sister and her wealthy husband are out sailing on a long vacation. When the sail turns to a shipwreck, he and his wife become her guardians. Keith knows his brother-in-law has converted a big chunk of his wealth into a small cache of diamonds (trying to avoid now obscure British rules on transferring assets in a planned move to Canada). He also realizes he’s got to get to the wreck halfway around the world to find the diamonds for his niece’s sake. So how does a guy with little money and no connections get halfway around the world as fast as possible? Well, it’s a lovely story, and in a pre-internet era (transatlantic phone calls are pretty exotic) it’s a joy to see how people help Keith. One of the best treasure hunts ever. RIYL It’s A Wonderful Life, Anne of Green Gables, or if you just need a detox from the internet and your faith in human nature restored.
Sea Wife
by Amity Gaige
The Washington Post review
Where does a mistake begin? It’s a hell of an opening line, and you’ll find your self reading quickly. We know something bad happened, but we don’t know what. It all sounds like a familiar dream: Quit your job, sell the house, pull the kids out of school, buy a boat, and sail for a year or two. All the more so if you need to shake things up. The book goes back and forth between Juliet’s journal and her husband Michael’s ship’s log as the story unfolds. Marriage, family, life—this is a book that tackles it all—for better and worse. RIYL Lauren Groff’s Fates and Furies, All is Lost, The Golden Couple.
(Yeah, we don’t sail, no idea why two shipwrecks ended up on this list, maybe skip these if you’re on a boat for vacation.)
Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee
by Casey Cep
The New York Times review
The Reverend Willie Maxwell was definitely a man with a murderous understanding of the life insurance industry. Then a law-abiding Vietnam veteran walked into a funeral and shot him in front of several hundred witnesses. Casey Cep’s book is full of deep historical research, from the origins of life insurance and voodoo, to the murders attributed to Maxwell. And if that’s not enough, this really is the last book Harper Lee tried to write (she helped Truman Capote quite a bit with the research for In Cold Blood, as you will learn), so there’s all that to talk about as well. A small, slim paperback, this is a wide-ranging book, full of many interesting stories. RIYL To Kill a Mockingbird, true crime, In Cold Blood, The New Yorker magazine.
The English Understand Wool
by Helen DeWitt
The Washington Post review
If you’re really book nerd, you may know Helen DeWitt as the writer of cult favorite The Last Samurai—no relation to the Tom Cruise movie— (currently part of Susan’s to-do stack). This little novella of hers, really a long short story, has some wild twists and turns and is a complete delight. We know: The title is nothing, you’ve never heard of this writer, the binding looks like a Little Golden Book for a child. Every reason to skip it, but we strongly recommend you seek it out instead. Told by delightfully sophisticated seventeen-year-old Maguerite,—who is a little bit of a snob, very sure of herself and her maman’s teachings,—it’s a joyfully amoral story with a twist. Not to be missed, it’s quite literally laugh-out-loud funny, and despite being quite short, worth the price of hardcover admission. RIYL: James Thurber’s The Catbird Seat, The Sting, Gone Girl, a very good laugh, stories you can re-read regularly.
Invitation to the Waltz
by Rosamond Lehmann
The Guardian review
Just a lovely little book, all about the inner thoughts of a young woman getting ready to go to her first adult dance. For summer reads, we like a little escapism, and the mind of Olivia, age 17, still quite naive, is a delight from a bygone era. (Olivia is the exact opposite counterpart to Marguerite, the narrator in the recommendation just above.) RIYL Pride and Prejudice, BritBox, Nancy Mitford, Downton Abbey.
In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss
by Amy Bloom
The New York Times review
If you don’t want to escape at all, the novelist Amy Bloom tells the story of her marriage and her husband’s Alzheimer’s Disease diagnosis—and his decision to end his life before the disease steals the rest of his mind. It’s about an amazing love, and a terrible letting go, as he asks his wife to help him organize it all. Beautifully written, the book is an amazing testament to love. RIYL big decisions, ethical quandaries, Still Alice, a good cry.
Flux
by Jinwoo Chong
Kirkus Reviews review
There may be some time travel, but this book doesn’t fall into any one genre. A funny take on modern start-up culture with a dose of fraud, the death of publishing, it’s also a story about a man obsessed with an old TV show, and a boy dealing with big losses. RIYL Everything Everywhere All at Once, Several People are Typing, the Theranos scandal, the book The Time-Traveler’s Wife.
Winter Reading 2022
/ in Books, TV /Whether you’re looking to make a list for your family to buy for you, find something special for the readers in your life, or looking forward to being curled up cozily with an undetermined title, we’ve pulled together all the Best of 2022 book lists into one place. We’ll tell you it does seem to be banner year for books. It looks like writers made good use of the pandemic’s toll on their social lives.
NPR
Books We Love
We think this one is the best of all lists because it’s the prettiest database around and it’s extensive (over 400 total books). You can filter your list by a variety of styles and interests, and the cover images rearrange accordingly. If you’re a more practical type, just click over to view as an alphabetical list. It’s a joy to spend time if you’re a browser, and fast if you need to make a targeted purchase. And we love a lot of these books, too.
The Washington Post
Ten Best of 2022
50 Notable Nonfiction
50 Notable Fiction
We don’t know how anyone gets it down to just ten, but they do the hard work so you can just look like a very savvy book shopper. Even if your intended reader isn’t excited about one of these, books are easy to exchange, and these are all smart choices. (We can vouch for Trust and Demon Copperhead from the Top 10.)
The New York Times
Ten Best of 2022
Again, how can they pick only 10? And several overlaps with WaPo’s picks, including the two we seconded above. In this case, we’d just add The Candy House, also amazing. We’d second the end of the original review: Jennifer Egan’s Welcome to the Goon Squad and The Candy House will someday be published together in a single Library of America volume. She’s earned a spot in the American canon.
Time Magazine
The 100 Must-Read Books of 2022
We think Time and NPR, with longer lists, are much more willing to include some books that are just good fun, not great literature, and that can be just the right way to spend a long weekend. We’re not sure the title of their column is just right. Are there 100 must-read books in any given year? And if so, then there’s likely no time for anything else to be read, which seems a bit too narrow. To narrow your viewing of this list, we’d say to take a look at Dinosaurs, In Love, Lucy By the Sea, The Marriage Portrait, Mouth to Mouth, Shrines to Gaiety, and (previously noted in our last blast) Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow.
And one TV show:
Let’s be honest, in our experience Amazon Prime has typically been one the weaker streaming channels—we have it only because it’s free with our existing Amazon Prime accounts. They may have hit their stride with more consistently strong showings, and we want to highlight The English. Not only fantastically beautifully shot (those skies, those clouds, with lots of lingering shots on faces, hands, and the details of hand-sewn wardrobe), the writing is top-notch. The show’s writer/director, Hugo Blick, also made An Honorable Woman, and you can see the themes the series share. Life is complicated, bad things happen, we’re all outsiders somewhere, and the pursuit of a mission may be as close to happiness as his characters can get. If you wanted a TV series to spark some family discussions, this is the one to pick.
Summer Reading 2022
/ in Books /Book reviews to fill your summer vacation time, should you be so inclined. We’re going to make this list pretty fast to read, calling out Read If You Like comparisons as shorthand to help you find the right book for you. The one consistent note, we look for truly great writing, so that’s table stakes—these writers are at the top of their game in these books. As always, we have a link for you to click through to longer reviews if you need more information.
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
by V.E. Schwab
The NPR review
Some time travel, literal deals with the devil. Perfect if you loved the core 1980s Anne Rice vampire books, The Time Traveler’s Wife, Life After Life. Yes, in the fantasy genre, which may not be your thing, but the book is beautifully written, and the entire idea could fill a book club meeting, so worthy of consideration.
City on Fire
by Don Winslow
Washington Post review
Winslow is a terrific writer, but you need to plan on going short on the sleep when you start his books. His work reads like non-fiction due to his meticulous research. The books are always propulsive, you’ll stay up all night to race to the end. RIYL Michael Connelly, Joe Landsdale, Dennis Lehane, Fast and the Furious car chases.
Happy for You
by Claire Stanford
NY Times review
RIYL modern tech office comedies, e.g., Several People Are Typing, The Circle, Then We Came to the End or academic farces, e.g., The Idiot, Dear Committee Members, Lucky Jim. Also, if you like to support new writers. This is a debut, it’s terrific.
The Cartographers
by Peng Shepherd
Washington Post review
Another debut, always good to support. A smidge of fantasy, but otherwise very real. Good if you can’t go too deep into fantasy (think Stephen King 11/22/63, perhaps Kate Atkinson’s Time After Time, The Absolute Book). Oddly comforting, bad stuff happens, but you feel good as the book goes on, bit of romance, family drama, academia, and a lot of maps. Definitely must read read if as a child you owned or coveted one of the poster maps of Narnia or Middle Earth, or have a road trip with paper maps planned. (Susan confesses to having owned the Narnia map.)
The Candy House
by Jennifer Egan
Vox review
Obvs, if you loved A Visit from the Good Squad, you probably snapped this one up immediately. A bit of a sequel, first one not required, interesting novel, each chapter is a new back story, somewhat interrelated to the the ones before, from a previously supporting character. Excellent if you’d like to read a novel but your kids are still young enough to interrupt you all the time, or you are reading to fall asleep, and can’t take on Trollope as a vacation read. Full of terrific sentences with which you can annoy your fellow vacationers by reading aloud. Skewers big tech, life hacking, generally attuned to the tragedy and ridiculousness of modern family/friend life. RIYL the Patrick Melrose novels by Edward St. Aubyn, Karen Russell, George Saunders.
Rabbits
by Terry Miles
Kirkus Reviews review
Apparently, there’s a related podcast, didn’t know that when I read the book. This is another propulsive read. Perfect for fans of Ready Player One, The DaVinci Code, Jurassic Park, Snow Crash, The 22 Murders of Madison May. A little bit conspiracy, all thriller. Very convincing. Finished the book, a week later I noticed in the second season of The Flight Attendant there was a rabbit in the art over the fireplace in Cassie’s new apartment, and I though “hmmmm.” (Also good if you like HBO’s The Flight Attendant or Made for Love). Potentially a great pick for a smart teen who prefers screens over books.
In the Quick
by Kate Hope Day
Krikus Reviews review
If you liked The Martian, 100% match for In the Quick. If you’ve got an aspiring female scientist close to your heart, also an excellent gift. A little bit of Dune, with the themes of space, family, interior thoughts of a main character who starts young. A good match if you liked Special Topics in Calamity Physics, Little Women, TV’s The Big Bang Theory, JD Salinger’s Nine Stories, The Family Fang.
Sea of Tranquility
by Emily St. John Mandel
The Guardian review
Again, obvs if you liked her books Station Eleven or The Glass Hotel, you probably already finished this. If you liked the style of The Candy House, above, you will also like this. RIYL How High We Go in the Dark, The Great Believers, The Overstory, Lincoln in the Bardo.
Joan is Okay
by Weike Wang
NY Times review
Joan is likely not okay but despite the parameters (Joan is an ER doc in NYC in early 2020), this is a not to be avoided just because you have banned pandemic books from your free time. You know it’s out there, and it comes up at the end, but it’s really more about families, second generation immigrants, generational gaps, and careers. All done with love and humor. Delightful, fast read, perfect if you’ve ever felt a little bit lost. RIYL The Maid; Less; Where’d You Go, Bernadette; My Hollywood, Jessi Klein essays, The Joy Luck Club.
The Latinist
by Mark Prins
Washington Post review
Another debut novel, shades of dark side of academia novels such as The Secret History, Wonder Boys, and The Human Stain, but also recent bestsellers that retold classic myths (Circe, A Thousand Ships, Ariadne). The harassment in this novel is so bad, without being an actual felony, that I found myself gasping out loud at every turn, but also totally believing it was possible someone would do this. Excellent discussion fodder for book clubs. Fascinating to read, because you never know where it’s going to go next (shades of Don Winslow’s City on Fire, above.) Do not read if you are currently in a toxic workplace or considering leaving your doctoral program. If you laughed all through the horrors of The Hangover movies, you may be able to laugh out loud during the reading, but not over-the-top workplace humor as with The Devil Wears Prada.
The Anomaly
by Hervé Le Tellier
NY Times review
Again, we have one non-realistic detail that makes this world different than ours, but it’s a mistake to put this book in any genre except great literature. RIYL the movie The Arrival, The Silence, Lauren Groff’s Matrix, Before the Fall, In Five Years. While an airplane book, it’s not a crashing airplane novel, and while it’s got a potential conspiracy, that’s also not really the point. More than anything else it’s a philosophical conundrum. What’s the right thing to do if this one anomaly happens? It reminded me more of Nevil Shute’s On the Beach than anything else. If this one thing happens, then let’s see how individual people pivot. A gorgeously written thought experiment. If Schördinger’s Cat fascinates you, you’ll love this book.
Sorrow and Bliss
by Meg Mason
The Guardian review
RIYL The Silver Linings Playbook (movie or book); Prozac Nation; Elinor Oliphant is Completely Fine; The Perks of Being a Wallflower; Postcards from the Edge; Eat, Pray, Love; anything by Nina Stibbe. Fantastic writing, no punches held on the character’s mental illness, but still, at heart, an optimistic take on the world. If the dark humor doesn’t scare you off, delightful vacation read. Just a joy to read, polished it off in two weeknights—mad dash to find out where we were going. Some echoes again of TV’s Fleabag (originally a play sometimes accessible via National Theatre Live, btw.)
Four Thousand Weeks
by Oliver Burkema
NY Times review
Ugh, a self-help productivity book for vacation? No way. Except it’s really a meditation on how to accept that you’re not ever getting it all done, perfectly. Not ever. You’re going to have to say no to some things, and go down some blind alleys, retrace your steps, and well, just be a human. Favorite idea, brief mention: What if instead of FOMO, we think of it as JOMO—the Joy of Missing Out? Good for you, you’re missing the baseball game with college roommates because you’re having a beach day with your daughter. Didn’t get to take that start up job because you’re helping your spouse get through law school, what a great person you are! Almost missed this one, feel quite lucky to have reconsidered.
Life Without Children
by Roddy Doyle
NY Times review
Short stories, so stop here if that’s a dealbreaker. Set in the pandemic, but nothing dramatic, catches the mood of it all. I’ve encountered a lot of these, but the people are more essential–out in the thick of it, trying to work and homeschool at the same time. This is a different demographic, and the tone of it all really clicked. Uplifting and yet, not. If you’re in the mood, we highly recommend.
Winter Reading 2021
/ in Books /We feel like it’s pretty safe to say that if you’re a LYON client in 2021, you don’t have a lot of free time, so it may be months before you think about the URL on your hopefully handy year at a glance calendar, but we still like to pretend we’re going to curl up on a warm beach with a good book, so we wanted to give you some ideas. Mostly, we wanted to say thank you. Stuffing our winter envelopes and mailing them all is a working meditation on how incredibly fortunate we are to have so many wonderful clients and vendors. From the baggage handlers at our favorite airlines to the CEOs we interview, we feel amazingly lucky to know you have our back, and to be trusted with your stories, to have your back when you need it. And so many of you are making a huge difference in mitigating COVID-19 that these last two years have been among the most fulfilling of our 31 years in business. Thank you all.
And back to the Hustle part of our tagline—we figure you don’t need our own paragraph long review, so we’ll keep it short and let you link over to professional reviews.
American Christmas Stories
edited by Connie Willis
Borg Review
The Library of America is a non-profit that publishes beautiful editions of writing that captures the American experiment. There collections are a terrific gift for the prolific reader, who will happen upon favorite writers or make new friends. This one ranges from Jack London’s Klondike Christmas to Joan Didion’s The Big Rock Candy Figgy Pudding Pitfall, but if you don’t want any more Christmas, check out The Peanuts Papers. And for the less willing reader, it’s all top notch, but very short, so they can move on without a major commitment—and maybe they will get excited about something or someone in the anthology.
Several People Are Typing
by Calvin Kasulke
Tech Crunch review
Even if you’re not a Slack user, and even if you love every aspect of your job, the dark humor of this short novel is bound to make you laugh. And if you’re feeling a little burned out and bitter—well, this is probably going to read like a documentary and push you to shake up your life to make some changes.
No One Is Talking About This
by Patricia Lockwood
NPR review
This books starts with the shallow, staccato rhythm of a dive into the internet (the portal), with a few mysterious backstory clues, and winds up somewhere scarily real and riveting. Twenty pages in you are laughing and wondering if this is a good use of time, and by the end your heart has been ripped out. It’s actually terrific in an era where everyone knows the answers, to find out that maybe no one does.
Night Boat to Tangier
by Kevin Barry
NY Times review
A fast, riveting read, two old gangsters sitting in the ferry terminal reflecting as they wait for a woman who may not show up. Perfect for fans who loved the moral underpinnings of HBO’s Deadwood.
The Vanishing Half
by Brit Bennett
Washington Post review
While the overarching plot is about a Black woman who choses to abandon her family to pass as white, the the entire novel is chock full of characters passing as something they aren’t or haven’t become yet, or just don’t realize they are. If you know what imposter syndrome is, you’ll find someone in here you relate to. And isn’t is a joy to read a book where what shines through is the gorgeous humanity of so many different kinds of people?
The Startup Wife
by Tahmina Anam
The Guardian review
It seems there’s a whole special genre of fiction focused on how totally bizarre modern work life is whether it’s tech or media companies but this book adds in a delightful new take on social media, which lets the dead continue to post. It’s all so horribly wrong, it’s a delight to see the wreckage unfold in slow motion.
All’s Well
by Mona Awad
The Washington Post review
A novel about inexplicable, undiagnosable pain, Shakespeare’s least loved play, academic politics, and a witch’s spell. Perfect for a stormy couple of nights indoors where it might all feel a little too real.
The Every
by Dave Eggers
The Washington Post review
Not Eggers’s best work, a follow up to The Circle, but, if you like those tech company train wreck books, it’s a delight. Full of laugh out loud descriptions. if your taste run to recognizing people are weird, and you ever use the phrase “tragedy of the commons,” this novel is for you.
The Council of Animals
by Nick McDonell
NPR review
After The Calamity, the animals hold their own vote. For fans of Animal Farm and The Plague Dogs.
The Shakespeare Requirement
by Julie Schumacher
The New Yorker review
Maybe you feel defensive about tech company foibles, but still enjoy a good work environment satire. This one is for you.
Greenwood
by Michael Christie
The Washington Post review
If you love Succession and/or Yellowstone, this novel tells you the backstory, the mogul story, and what happens when all those billionaires use up the earth. A rich, fast-paced story, perfect for fans of News of the World (book or movie).
Summer Reading 2021
/ in Books /We love to read so every summer, on the theory that most people have a little vacation coming, we like to post our suggestions.
Saint X
by Alexis Schaitkin
The New York Times review
We can’t top Joyce Carol Oates’s back cover blurb for this debut novel: “Richly atmospheric, by turns coolly satiric and warmly romantic…imagines a chorus of voices in the aftermath of the alleged murder of a privileged American girl in an exotic Caribbean country. Part true-crime thriller and part coming-of-age novel narrated by the dead girl’s younger sister…” You’ve likely ruled it in or out with just that fractured sentence. No judgement either way, but we had to put this one up as an option.
White Ivy
by Susie Yang
Washington Post review
Shonda Rhimes bought the movie rights. That’s another easy yes/no indicator for a lot of potential readers. It’s dark, but very engagingly so. The author is on record talking about inspiration from Wharton’s House of Mirth and contemporary protagonists as seen in breaking Bad and House of Cards. It caught our eye with some comparisons to Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, one of Susan’s all-time favorites from the early ’90s.
The Truants
by Kate Weinberg
USA Today review
Another debut thriller, which, now that we write this, may also have some roots in The Secret History. Set on a college campus with a star professor who draws our protagonist, Jess Walter, she also falls in with a close-knit group. Secrets, tragedy, love, and a lot of online comparisons to Agatha Christie. Published in 2019 in the UK, best-selling, page-turner author Jojo Moyes picked it as one of her top three recommendations for that year in The Guardian.
Sea Wife
by Amity Gaige
New York Times review
The news is full of stories about how the pandemic has reshuffled the geographic future of work and school. If we can remote work from anywhere, and if school is online, all kinds of new freedoms are possible in planning our future lives. The novel has a pre-pandemic young family setting off on a yearlong trip on a 44-foot sailboat. Telling the story from the perspective of wife/mom Juliet after the trip as she comes to terms with the events and the captain’s log kept by husband/dad Michael during the trip, the book generates suspense as we find out more. Without giving anything away, let’s just suggest you might want to read this novel before you make any really dramatic changes to your life.
Can You Forgive Her?
by Anthony Trollope
Trollope Society description
The first in Trollope’s political Palliser series, this novel tells the stories of three parallel courtships. Trollope was published in serial from so the book looks dauntingly long, but it moves very fast. Trollope is one of those classic British writers you might easily have missed reading back in school. His books remain relevant and interesting, not just because of the characters themselves, but because he writes about the double standards of a society much like ours. Like Edith Wharton, he writes about another era’s 1%, with all the hypocrisy you can find today. Like Wharton and Jane Austen, he’s fascinated by the inner workings of marriage but ties them to the politics of the country as a whole. Always absorbing, it’s a bit physically heavy in most editions to be a true beach read, but still might be worth the lift. (The book is complete in itself, there’s no need to read the other five in the series…but if you fall in love, good to know there’s more.)
Who Are You, Calvin Bledsoe?
by Brock Clarke
Star Tribune review
Perfect for fans who are wondering when John Irving might publish again, or who loved Where’d You Go Bernadette? or Andrew Sean Greer’s Less. This novel may also suit frustrated travelers who’ve been grounded for a year. In a nutshell, Calvin is a nearly 50-year-old Maine-based blogger (his expertise is pellet stoves) whose mother dies in an accident. Suddenly an aunt he’s never met (or heard of) shows up with a passport (for him) and insists Calvin travel with her all over Europe. Their escapades veer deeply into the ridiculous (thieves, secret agents, and a stalker ex-wife). It’s a joyful, fun book with a wide range of experiences but with a heart of gold at its heart. Perfect if you shuddered at the thought of Saint X or White Ivy earlier in our list.
The Secret Guests
by Benjamin Black
The Guardian review
It seems no English language list of book recommendations can ever be compiled without at least one WWII novel, but sometimes it’s hard to get excited about an era you really think you understand. This novel is something completely different. Black suggests a bit of historical fake news—that the young princesses Elizabeth and Margaret were not at Windsor Castle but instead hidden away in Ireland at the start of the war. Benjamin Black is actually the mystery-writing pseudonym of much-lauded, Man Booker Prize–winning John Banville, and for anyone who’s never read his Quirke series, he’s always entirely comfortable spilling Ireland’s dirty secrets, holding back nothing on the flaws of the past and of human nature itself. Perfect while you wait for the next season of The Crown. (If that appeals to you, please also check out Craig Brown’s Ninety-nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret and Monica Ali’s Untold Story.)
Summer Reading 2020
/ in Books /Even though we know you probably won’t be reading on a plane this summer and maybe not even on a beach, if you’re a reader, you’re likely still hungry for some more recommendations, and we like to oblige.
Uncanny Valley
by Anna Weiner
The New York Times review
This one is a memoir of the author’s time in customer support in Silicon Valley. It’s a good companion piece to The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, written from the insider viewpoint. It’s also a good non-fiction take for anyone who enjoyed Dave Egger’s The Circle or Hulu’s recent limited series, Devs. Silicon Valley is a big part of our cultural zeitgeist, and we all think we know what’s happening there with so much media and artistic coverage. It’s interesting to get a smaller, more intimate take on what it’s like to be immersed as a newcomer to the culture. As Ms. Weiner’s tale unfolds, it pulls the reader along and makes her growth from innocence to awareness parallel with our own journey as readers. As her worry and doubts grow, ours do as well. No company is identified by name, although all are identifiable, but it’s a writing quirk that serves the subject of isolation well as the memoir unfolds.
Feast Your Eyes
by Myla Goldberg
The New York Times review
As 2020 forces so many people to desperately re-juggle work and family life, this story of a young photographer raising her daughter may resonate in ways a reader would not have felt six months ago. Much like A Hundred Suns, reviewed below, we know the peril coming and then are immediately thrown back to the start of the story, where Lillian begins, even before Samantha arrives. We also know that Lillian will die in early middle age, so the story is told photo by photo as the show catalogue, with old friends, lovers, Samantha, and Lillian herself speaking from her journals and letters. The unusual approach suits the life story of a photographer and mother always more comfortable watching other people than being on center stage herself. One of the hooks in the story is a Sally Mann backstory with a series of photos of young Sam taken in some degrees of undress (as young children naturally choose to be at home). I really did enjoy this book, and think it is an overlooked gem. The photo controversy makes alone makes it a great book for discussion.
Long Bright River
by Liz Moore
The Washington Post review
Like The Godmother reviewed below, this book is marketed as a thriller, and it delivers completely on that front (movie rights sold to Amy Pascal—Molly’s Game and The Post—and Neal Moritz—of Fast and the Furious fame). It’s also the story of a family, primarily two sisters. One is a missing drug addict while the other is a cop, while a serial killer appears to be ramping up attacks on women, with some focus on living an honorable life. (I don’t seek out to find books about families and strong women, but lately that theme keeps popping up.) If you were a fan of Dennis Lehane’s Mystic River (as a book or a movie), then this novel should be in the pile by your bed. There are a lot of twists to this story, but it’s all held together with likable characters and good writing. Perfect vacation book—you’ll race through this.
Valentine
by Elizabeth Wetmore
The Washington Post review
I picked this up from some hot new book list, expecting some easy Texas noir, like Nic Pizzolatto’s debut novel, Galveston. And while the first chapter might start you down that path, Valentine takes a fast turn into the To Kill A Mockingbird territory of racism and justice. But as you settle into this story, it continues to surprise. With many different points of view, this novel gives voice to a lot of strong women, and seems in the end to be a deeper musing on morality, class, and what it means to be a woman in the ’70s oil-boom society that regards the brawn of men as the only valuable commodity. All the women have strong voices and they don’t agree—in fact, they don’t always have the same story to tell the reader about the facts, so there’s book club discussion fodder there as well.
Flight Portfolio
by Julie Orringer
The New York Times review
In our era with so many refugees fleeing climate change, war, and corruption, it’s hard not to see the echoes in World War II books like Flight Portfolio. Who’s worth saving and who is not, and how do you live in a world where you cannot save everyone? Based on a real American war effort by a man, Varian Fry, working for the American Emergency Rescue Committee, the book gives you some information that was all new to me. Tasked to save the great artists and writers by helping them escape, the book focuses on a fictional relationship to walk us through the story. I have a pretty high bar for anything that fits into the sub-genre I think of as “heroic escape from the Nazis”—I’m looking for great literature if I’m going to spend more time in this part of history, and this book, meticulously researched, was worth the repeat. Think Schindler’s List but much more consideration of the moral subtleties when you are carefully choosing who you might approach to help escape with very limited time, power, and budget. Reading this the last few months, I imagine some of the story may particularly resonate with health care workers in hard-hit areas of the world, where the same calculus was deployed in allocating resources.
A Hundred Suns
by Karin Tanabe
NPR Review
This was a quick read, as close to a simple beach read as we typically get in these recommendations. Knowing nothing about ’30s Indochine going in, this was an interesting primer on the basics of Michelin rubber and the Michelin industries in French history. The story centers on the American teacher wife of a distant Michelin cousin. It quickly gives you a mystery, gets your heart pounding, then calmly backs up a few months to give you a shot at figuring out what’s happening and why. Another one that’s likely to be snapped up for development as a film or series. If you like Babylon Berlin on Netflix, you’ll enjoy this book.
Greenwood
by Michael Christie
The Guardian review
The family saga here is a wild ride, built around the Canadian lumber forests. The book is organized like the rings of a tree, starting in the near future and moving progressively further back to unveil another layer of the family, and then slowly forward again after the midpoint to get us back to the nearby future. The family stories are each a movie unto themselves—rare in a book like this that you aren’t full of questions, wanting to get back to earlier pressing questions. Greenwood keeps you riveted on the current story, even as you see missing pieces fall into place. Full of people I won’t forget, I think it most reminded me of the best of John Irving’s books. Don’t be fooled by the opening sequence—the near future is a bit of climate change dystopia, and if that’s not your kind of book, push through and you will be amply rewarded. This is one of those books you read and you will swear it was a movie you saw—the visuals are so vividly brought to life through the writing, it seems clear you must have seen sets and actors in wardrobe.
Doxology
by Nell Zink
The New York Times review
Focused on a a young couple, Pamela and Daniel, in late ’80s NYC who accidentally have a baby while they and their friends live the life of young artists. The story runs all the way up the present, as the multi-generation story that branches off in several directions. Every bit of the story is fun, every sentence is a joy, and while there are many characters, it’s never hard to keep track of them. I think, like many family sagas, the book is about lost innocence, but it’s not nostalgic for a false past. It suggests life is messy and only the people we love really matter—whatever the losses, in the end it was a life well-lived and that’s what matters.
Celine
by Peter Heller
NPR review
Peter Heller’s books are always a terrific read, and Celine is no exception. (I desperately wanted to mail this book to Jane Fonda and beg her to make a movie of this with herself as the star.) Celine is yet another accidental detective, but she works only to reunite families. Like so many detectives her motivations aren’t entirely pure—she’s got sins in her past for which she feels she should atone. Set against a backdrop of many of the best of American landscapes, Celine and her romantic partner, Peter, have a strikingly great relationship—one that made me realize how few detectives ever have that backstory. As they journey through America on the trail of a missing father, Celine makes reference to other mysteries they’ve tackled, and while this book is a standalone, you may find yourself wishing they were their own books. I think those throwaway references, never fully explained, add to the intimacy of the book—like the shorthand you have with a good friend of long standing. If you end up liking this, while the characters do not repeat, all his books are well worth your time. (Our family all liked The Dog Star so much, we discovered our older son had appropriated our copy as part of his permanent library when he left for college.)
Little Eyes
by Samantha Schweblin
If you read Schweblin’s Fever Dream, you know she’s not a science fiction writer. If you didn’t I feel the need to tell you this book isn’t SciFi or an alternate reality. Only one detail differs from our modern day—a consumer product known as a kentuki exists. Translated from the Spanish, this book takes us all over the world in the modern day as people open their kentukis. Each one is good for one partnership only, with one person having physical possession of the small, furry companion, while another person, anonymously, controls the (unspeaking), motorized, webcam-containing kentuki. While it reads like dystopian fiction, we see how the kentukis fill a void, sometimes unhealthily, for lonely people all over the world. What happens when you share all of your life with a stranger? Are you more connected or more isolated? A really interesting look at our current society and social media, shown through a plausible extension of our current set of social network choices.
Men We Reaped
by Jessamyn Ward
The Guardian review
I’m a big fan of Ms. Ward’s fiction, and I knew this book covered her life in Mississippi. I bought this a few years ago to better understand how a writer’s life impacts their art, and for an honest account of life under the American poverty line, although, as many book buyers can relate, it took a while to percolate up to the top of the pile. Keeping in mind I’ve always been a Faulkner fan, the American South has always seemed fascinatingly hard to understand. I lurk around the edges, scooping up authors of fiction and non-fiction who might help me understand. It turns out there is no better guide than Jessamyn Ward. With two National Book Awards under her belt already, she’s a writer who is part of the American canon, and this book is a riveting read, although it is inevitably tragic as she loses five men in her life, one by one, in as many years—a loss unimaginable to most Americans. While the book was written in 2013, it’s particularly interesting now to listen to now, as discussions of social inequality, racism, and sexism are front and center in the headlines. This is a book about managing to live and celebrate life while also reeling from unremitting grief.
The Godmother
by Hannelore Cayre
The New York Times review
This book is destined to be a movie, and the rights have already been sold, so read it fast. It’s a short book, a very quick read, translated from the French. It’s ostensibly a Breaking Bad scenario—an aging, regular woman protagonist has an economic need, sees an opportunity in the drug trade, and takes it. On that level the story is a lot of fun—a fast-paced, action-packed thrill-ride. You can leave it there and walk away. (This book is so short, it wouldn’t fill a San Diego to New York flight for most readers. In fact, it’s so captivating and so short, if you start one night you may kip sleeping to finish.) But it spends just enough sidelong glances down dark alleys not taken to show how the systemic prejudice against the poor, foreign, and even women breaks down overall society, so you don’t have to log it in the guilt pleasures column.
Claire Dewitt and the City of the Dead
by Sara Gran
Kirkus Reviews
I picked this up thinking it was a detective novel set in New Orleans, but it’s a book about a lot of different mysteries. Claire’s solving one crime now, while her life is built around a long-gone missing childhood friend, and there’s a wild meta discussion about what it means to be a detective and a mystery. The writing is top-notch, and in true Southern Gothic and noir traditions, things are bad, getting worse, and yet Claire doggedly tries to alleviate human suffering as a result of the unknown as best she can, while carrying her own pain—all of that in a post-Katrina New Orleans. Satisfying read for mystery lovers, but the book has such a love of language, it’s great for people who love a little quality. It’s an unusual book, and as you can see from our link above, there aren’t many mainstream reviews. This one is a hidden gem from about 10 years ago (now there a few others in the series). It’s a book you’ll love or hate for its experiments—it defies categorization, but it suits New Orleans and there’s no denying Sara Gran’s writing talent. I’ve yet to have anyone dislike it, but it’s odd enough that it would be a tough book for book club to pick apart. For the adventurous reader.
Winter Ideas 2020
/ in Books, TV /We’re pretty certain everyone is looking for new sources of entertainment as we all try and ride out the downhill slope of the pandemic. With vaccinations beginning, hospitals are still on overload, so we’re all still stuck at home in our off hours. We thought that rather than provide you with our favorite book and TV reviews, we could provide you with our favorite sources for fresh ideas. Even if you’re an avid fan of TV or books or music, we find, it is possible something flies under the radar. These sites are a great way to do a quick double check, see if you missed something that does seem just right for you—or someone who is part of your bubble—and fill in the gap.
What to Watch Newsletter
The New York Times
If you’re a subscriber you can get this newsletter delivered to your inbox. Full of notes like the 50 Best Things on [insert various streaming services here], the email newsletter for subscribers comes straight to your inbox each week, helping you prioritize your viewing. They tell you what’s new, and what’s leaving soon, and typically organize it by streaming channel. They’ll also tell you what to watch if you liked X, Y, and Z and have one hour vs two hours free. And if you never watch anything, this column is a great way to check in every so often and be sure you’re not missing out. (It will give you enough detail, without any spoilers, to pass muster in the early attendee Zoom call dialogue—once known as the watercooler conversation. If you’re not a subscriber, you’ll need to make a friend to reliably read the column.
NPR Book Concierge
NPR
The best 300 or so books of every year, all tagged with multiple, relevant tags. Want the best young adult science fiction that also has seriously great writing? You can sort by those three criteria. This is an awesome tool for gift shopping, no matter if you are looking for a book for an avid reader or an unenthusiastic one, of any age or taste. This is amazing on your phone or iPad, BTW. Susan actually gets on the NPR website and starts hitting refresh when she feels it’s time for this to be available. We’d swear it was a January publish date in the past, but 2020 is out now.
The Best Books of 2020
The Washington Post
These folks have incredible restraint. They only list 10 books. They do however do a number of genre lists with the best 10 SciFi, Nonfiction, Romance, etc. And for the non-readers, if you click around, WaPo also does the best albums, movies, TV shows, and several other things.
Vulture Best of 2020
Vulture
This team helps fill in the gaps. Everything from the 10 best comedy podcasts, board games, video games, songs, movies, and best comedy specials, so unless all you do is work and meditate, this site will help you find something entertaining that’s right up your alley.
55 Most Anticipated Books of 2021
Oprah Magazine
If you like to work ahead, you’ll find these lists on various book blogs and clickbait in Apple News, but Oprah is a reliable narrator—although she may well have snapped up the film/TV rights to some of these already.
Interactive Book Calendar
The New York Times
For the true book nerd, a calendar of literary events (subscribe in Google or iOS), from writers’ birthdays to the publishing release dates of new books, award announcements, and film and TV adaptations. Perfect if you want a readers’ version of People Magazine, without the magazine.
Best Apple TV Apps
Tom’s Guide
We all consume our media in a lot of different ways, but, ironically for people who make videos, most of us have cut the cable cord, and are relying on streaming services and super fast internet. One trick we all use is to wait until we have a couple of shows we want to watch on a given streaming site, like CBS All Access or Showtime, subscribe to the channel via the app on our Smart TV or Apple TV/Roku/Chromecast, and watch everything the next 30-60 days, then cancel. We do all seem to view some combination of HBO, Netflix, Hulu, and Disney+ as the core set of channels we keep around month after month. (Disney+ seems to require you have a Marvel fan or younger children at home to make the cut for 12 months a year.)
Enjoy your well-deserved time off. We all look forward to seeing you on teleconference (and maybe in person) in 2021.