 | WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD: A NOVEL OF FAME, HONOR AND REALLY BAD WEATHER, by Jincy Willett (St. Martin’s Press, 2003) |
SURPRISE BESTSELLER
When British copy editor Lynne Truss sat down to write her “call to arms” on proper punctuation, she never imagined it would become a bestseller on two continents. Turns out Truss is not the only person who’s appalled by the missing apostrophe in the movie title Two Weeks Notice. She is not alone when she cringes at superfluous exclamation points and wrings her hands over greengrocers’ signs that read BANANA’S. Gonzo grammarians, rise up and unite! Eats, Shoots and Leaves will lead the revolution.
| EATS, SHOOTS AND LEAVES: THE ZERO TOLERANCE APPROACH TO PUNCTUATION, by Lynne Truss (Gotham Books, 2004) |
Genius is the only term to describe James Thurber’s concise, comic account of his boyhood in Ohio, where he grew up amid an eccentric family, a pack of odd dogs, and a tangle of newfangled inventions. It’s only 128 pages long, but for laughs and insight into human foibles, it’s impossible to beat. If you’ve never read Thurber, this is the book that will make you a fan.
| MY LIFE AND HARD TIMES (1933; Perennial, 1999) |
SURPRISE BESTSELLER
“Stunning.”—Margaret Atwood
“Remarkable . . . an eloquent brief on the transformative power of fiction.”—The New York Times
In the face of Iran’s repressive society, former college professor Azar Nafisi invited seven of her students, all women, to join her in her home Thursday mornings to read and discuss the classics. For two years the group read Nabokov, Austen, and other banned books. They discussed not only the illicit Western literature, but also their own lives and daily struggles. The result is a soaring testament to fiction’s ability to change lives. Try it in your own reading group—it’s a book that begs to be shared.
| READING LOLITA IN TEHRAN: A MEMOIR IN BOOKS, by Azar Nafisi (Random House, 2003) |
After being nominated several times for the Hugo Award, science fiction writing’s highest honor, Robert J. Sawyer finally scored with Hominids, a cunning blend of a parallel-universe story and a murder mystery, with a nod to Planet of the Apes. While performing a quantum computing experiment, physicist Ponter Boddit is suddenly ripped from his Neanderthal world to a world dominated by humans. While Ponter and his human hosts try to adjust to one another’s existence, Ponter’s colleague Adikor is under suspicion, on the Neanderthal planet, of having murdered the vanished scientist. A wonderfully polished tale in which both the Neanderthal and human universes are perfectly realized.
| HOMINIDS, by Robert J. Sawyer (Tor Books, 2003) |
BESTSELLER
“This book is PHAT!”—Morgan Spurlock, filmmaker, SuperSize Me
Why are 60 percent of Americans overweight? Investigative journalist Critser digs deep to get the story, and the result is a shocking and compulsively readable book. He shows what happens when cheap sweeteners and fats are combined with supersized portions and fed to unwitting victims—many of them poor, many of them children. A riveting read that is a perfect complement to Eric Schlosser’s bestseller Fast Food Nation.
| FAT LAND, by Greg Critser (Mariner Books, 2004) |
| THE KNOWN WORLD, by Edward P. Jones (Amistad, 2004) |
A GALAXY FAR, FAR AWAY
This installment of David Drake’s wildly popular Lt. Leary series finds Lieutenant Daniel Leary and Signals Officer Adele Mundy bored out of their minds during a period of peace with the Alliance. They are so desperate for any kind of action, they agree to take a pair of filthy-rich aristocrats on a voyage into deep space. Events take a turn when Leary and Mundy stumble on a secret Alliance base that is preparing an armada for war.
| THE FAR SIDE OF THE STARS, by David Drake (Baen Books, 2003) |
WHITE HOUSE FOLLIES
Did you know that John Quincy Adams liked to go skinny-dipping in the Potomac River? Or that when Warren G. Harding was short of cash at the poker table, he wagered the White House? And get this—Jimmy Carter once reported sighting a UFO! Cormac O’Brien’s Secret Lives of the U.S. Presidents is jam-packed with the kind of classified information our chief executives prayed would never become public knowledge. Don’t miss this hilarious take on the squares in the oval office.
| SECRET LIVES OF THE U.S. PRESIDENTS, by Cormac O’Brien (Quirk Books, 2004) |
If you’ve never read Marcel Proust, you’re in good company. Most of us have never tackled him, in part because the standard English translation was antiquated and off-putting. Now, thanks to translator Lydia Davis, Proust may enjoy a resurgence. Sentences are sharper, images are clearer, even the little jokes are funnier. And Davis pulled this off by offering a translation that is actually more literal than previous ones. A triumph.
| SWANN’S WAY: A NEW TRANSLATION, translated from the French by Lydia Davis (Viking, 2003) |
A WAY WITH WORDS
Word nerds, pay attention: This is the book for you. David Sacks gives us “biographies” of all 26 letters in our Roman alphabet. You’ll learn why J and V didn’t come into their own until the 17th century, meet dictionary makers Samuel Johnson and Noah Webster, and discover how X came to represent the unknown in mathematical equations. A literary browser’s delight.
| LANGUAGE VISIBLE: UNRAVELING THE MYSTERY OF THE ALPHABET FROM A TO Z, by David Sacks (Broadway Books, 2004) |
“A deft, ironic, beautiful novel that deserves to be a classic.”—William Styron
“The Great Gatsby of my time . . . one of the best books by a member of my generation.” —Kurt Vonnegut
“Beautifully crafted . . . a remarkable and deeply troubling book.”—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
Before there was Rick Moody or Jonathan Franzen, there was Richard Yates. Yates was one of the first writers to expertly chronicle the disillusionment of suburban America. Read this portrait of a marriage for the achingly touching portrait of middle-class disquiet, as well as the retro cool of its 1955 setting.
| REVOLUTIONARY ROAD, by Richard Yates; foreword by Richard Ford (1961; Vintage, 2000) |
WIT’S END
“Shakespeare’s stuff is different from mine, but that is not to say that it is inferior.”—P. G. Wodehouse
The wonderful wit of Wodehouse, exposed here through excerpts from his books, letters, and other writing, is a browser’s delight. If you are a Wodehouse fan, an Anglophile, or a humor appreciator, or if you have coffee-table space that demands a breezy, offbeat volume, your search is over.
| P. G. WODEHOUSE IN HIS OWN WORDS, compiled by Barry Day and Tony Ring (Overlook Press, 2003) |
SURPRISE BESTSELLER
In this New York Times bestseller, Nation reporter Barbara Ehrenreich displays undercover journalism at its finest, trading pad and paper for mop and dishrag as she masquerades as house cleaner, nursing-home assistant, waitress, and Wal-Mart employee in three different states. She discovers firsthand the difficulty of supporting herself on only one such income and lucidly explains how her coworkers, the working poor, must take second jobs to just scrape by and feed their families. She leaves you questioning privilege, equity, and government’s responsibility for its citizens.
| NICKEL AND DIMED: ON (NOT) GETTING BY IN AMERICA, by Barbara Ehrenreich (Owl Books, 2002) |
A MASTERPIECE YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED
“This is one funny romp . . . ”—Houston Chronicle
“Fanny is irresistible because it also has what every novel needs and so few these days possess: an entirely winning character who does all sorts of interesting things.”—Salon.com
“This novel is rich with White’s usual wit, psychological perceptiveness and his fascination with the curiosities of people, place and epoch.”—San Francisco Chronicle
Two Fannys, one a radical feminist, the other a housewife (based on Mrs. Frances Trollope), clash in this splendid, character-driven novel.
| FANNY, by Edmund White (Ecco Press, 2003) |
GREAT MYSTERIES
When you think of a murder mystery set in London, you might think of tea and chintz and gaslights. That’s not the London of super sleuth Marcus Didius Falco. He lives in A.D. 75—in Londinium in the Roman province of Britannia. In his fourteenth mystery, our hero encounters gangsters, kings, and female gladiators. Critics love Falco. The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer calls him “Sam Spade in a toga” and promises that “readers will have a fine, rollicking time.”
| THE JUPITER MYTH, by Lindsey Davis (Mysterious Press, 2003) |
“Stylish [and] stunningly accurate prose . . . brims with strange and amazing facts. . . . Destined to become a modern classic of science writing.”—The New York Times
“Bryson is surprisingly precise, brilliantly eccentric and nicely eloquent. . . . A gifted storyteller has dared to retell the world’s biggest story.”—The Seattle Times
Master storyteller Bryson has written about England, the Appalachian Trail, words, small-town America. . . . He could write on any topic and make it interesting. In his latest book he tackles not anything, but everything. As the title suggests, this is an entertaining and easily digestible account of the universe, from its origins to today.
| A SHORT HISTORY OF NEARLY EVERYTHING, by Bill Bryson (Broadway Books, 2004) |
REDISCOVERED CLASSIC
Molly Keane hailed from an upper-class Anglo-Irish family that cared little about education and much about hunting, fishing, and riding. Some of this rubbed off on Keane—she used to say that she took up writing only to supplement her meager clothing allowance. Time After Time is a madcap novel of a peculiar clan—sisters April, May, and June and brother Jasper. Their charming, eccentric lives turn even wackier when cousin Leda from Vienna arrives for a long stay.
| TIME AFTER TIME, by Molly Keane (1983; Virago Press, 2001) |
FABULOUS FANTASY
One boy is the sole survivor of a massacre and he dedicates his life to vengeance. The setup of the first book of Feist’s latest series is typical fantasy fare. What make his books special are their endearing characters, rich geographies, and thrilling action sequences. For a fast, engaging read you can’t do much better than New York Times bestselling author Raymond Feist.
| TALON OF THE SILVER HAWK, by Raymond E. Feist (Eos, 2003) |
ARMCHAIR TRAVEL
“Uproarious, unclassifiable. . . exquisitely manic. . . . [Dyer is] assuredly among the funniest writers alive.” —San Francisco Chronicle
“A delightfully original book. . . . Dyer’s writing brims with offbeat insights that had me chuckling for hours later, or reading aloud to dinner companions.”—Tony Horwitz, The New York Times Book Review
Don’t let the title fool you. Dyer’s latest book is actually a travelogue. The wildest, most original one you’ve ever read. You’ve got to read this one to believe it.
| YOGA FOR PEOPLE WHO CAN’T BE BOTHERED TO DO IT, by Geoff Dyer (Vintage, 2004) |
Wildflowers do not just bloom in the wild—they bloom everywhere: along railroad tracks, in vacant lots, between the cracks in shopping-mall parking lots. Jack Sanders helps you recognize the wide variety of wildflowers and locate their favorite habitats. Along the way he provides fascinating folklore about these flowers: The sap from the stalk of Bouncing Bet makes an excellent soap, and New Englanders used coltsfoot to treat a cough. A book that gardeners and herbalists will love.
| THE SECRETS OF WILDFLOWERS: A DELIGHTFUL FEAST OF LITTLE-KNOWN FACTS, FOLKLORE, AND HISTORY, by Jack Sanders (Lyons Press, 2003) |
A FRESH PERSPECTIVE
Master choreographer Twyla Tharp offers her thoughts on the creative life and ends up with an exciting, inspiring book. Part memoir, part workbook, part meditation, the book offers insights that will help you breathe new life into whatever project you pursue, be they traditional arts or the arts of living.
| THE CREATIVE HABIT: LEARN IT AND USE IT FOR LIFE, by Twyla Tharp (Simon & Schuster, 2003) |
Diane Johnson, author of the acclaimed and beloved novel Le Divorce, is back with more wit and insight into Franco-Anglo-American culture clashes. L’Affaire is set in an alpine ski resort, where a terrible avalanche sparks a family crisis and an international tussle for an inheritance. According to The New York Times, it’s “a delicious goulash of a novel: [Johnson] has turned cross-cultural misalliances and misunderstandings into the stuff of comedy.”
| L’AFFAIRE (Plume, 2004) |
THE BARD’S BIRTHDAY
When publishing professional Herman Gollob retired, he didn’t morph into a withering King Lear—he took up the study of the king. Gollob’s entertaining expedition through the world of Shakespeare rejoices in the value of lifelong learning and serves as a healthy reminder of why we read—for escape, introspection, and ever-expanding knowledge. The Washington Post calls Me and Shakespeare “a delightful read.”
| ME AND SHAKESPEARE: ADVENTURES WITH THE BARD, by Herman Gollob (Anchor Books, 2003) |
A MASTERPIECE YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED
A field guide to each rung on the American social ladder, from the pen of a noted essayist. Fussell won the 1976 National Book Critics Circle Award and the National Book Award for The Great War and Modern Memory. Here he paints a wry image (amusing drawings included) of American mores and reveals how everything we do reflects our position in the food chain.
| CLASS: A GUIDE THROUGH THE AMERICAN STATUS SYSTEM, by Paul Fussell (1983; Touchstone, 1992) |
ALLIGATORS IN THE SUBWAY
The best urban legends are not only bizarre but also have within them that kernel of believability. In Curses! Broiled Again, Jan Harold Brunvand, the guru of urban legends, explores the origins of such classics as the lady who visited the tanning parlor once too often, the Mrs. Fields cookie recipe, and what happens to your GPA if your college roommate dies. Light, gifty fun.
| CURSES! BROILED AGAIN: THE HOTTEST URBAN LEGENDS GOING, by Jan Harold Brunvand (W. W. Norton, 1990) |
THE WRITER’S LIFE
John Gardner was a renegade. He drank too much, slept around, rode a motorcycle, and wrote critically acclaimed award-winning books that included The Sunlight Dialogues (1972). Eventually life caught up with him and he died at the age of 49 in a motorcycle crash. Gardner’s charisma and brilliance leap off the page in this first major biography, which Joyce Carol Oates calls “fascinating and valuable.”
| JOHN GARDNER: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF A LITERARY OUTLAW, by Barry Silesky (Algonquin Books, 2004) |
MATH WHIZ
Is math anathema to you? Physicist Colin Bruce’s clever mysteries may be cause for a reevaluation. Magnifying the wonders of mathematical reasoning with the glass of everyone’s favorite British sleuth, the book sprightly sheds light on topics such as game theory, probability, and statistics in neat chapters: “The Case of the Unfortunate Businessman,” “The Case of the Surprise Heir,” “The Case of the Perfect Accountant.”
| CONNED AGAIN, WATSON! CAUTIONARY TALES OF LOGIC, MATH, AND PROBABILITY, by Colin Bruce (Perseus, 2002) |
GUIDES FOR THE PERPLEXED
When we were growing up, our elders always told us, “Be good.” Well, exactly how does one accomplish that? That’s where Munro Leaf’s classic handbook on good behavior steps in. Not only does he list the essential virtues of the well-behaved—be honest, be fair, be strong, be wise—he explains why these qualities come in handy in daily life. Written with young readers in mind, the book has a retro appeal that all ages will love. It would make an unusual and winning graduation gift.
| HOW TO BEHAVE AND WHY, by Munro Leaf (1946; Universe Books, 2002) |
AMERICAN HISTORY
A riveting history of the founding of the Jamestown Colony in 1607 that the Boston Globe calls “splendidly realized” and Publishers Weekly calls “sparkling.” The people behind the legends are revealed at last: Captain John Smith, who rose to become a leader of heroic proportions; Pocahontas, who was only 12 when she met him and who saved his life twice; the Indians and how they cleverly drove out the interlopers; and the first African slaves. A graceful, intelligent, exciting read.
| LOVE AND HATE IN JAMESTOWN: JOHN SMITH, POCAHONTAS, AND THE HEART OF A NEW NATION, by David Price (Alfred A. Knopf, 2003) |
SCANDALOUS
All the royal dish you could wish for. Brit Karl Shaw reveals shocking details about his land’s monarchs and those of neighboring kingdoms: England’s Queen Mary had a bad case of kleptomania—her attendants would apologetically return items to her subjects’ parlors. France’s Louis XIV was a multitasker—he liked receiving callers while he was seated on his chamber pot. And many, many more. Makes the shenanigans of the House of Windsor seem harmless by comparison.
| ROYAL BABYLON: THE ALARMING HISTORY OF EUROPEAN ROYALTY, by Karl Shaw (Broadway Books, 2001) |
TRUE CRIME
“As fantastic as a novel of magic realism by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.”—Natural History Magazine
“Fascinating.”—The Wall Street Journal
In the early 1800s, Sir Gregor MacGregor perpetuated one of the most elaborate cons in history, inventing an island off the coast of South America, forging its currency, and publishing a detailed guidebook to it. He then lead two shiploads of colonists . . . nowhere. The spellbinding tale of a charming sociopath and his elaborate ruse.
| THE LAND THAT NEVER WAS: SIR GREGOR MACGREGOR AND THE MOST AUDACIOUS FRAUD IN HISTORY, by David Sinclair; foreword by Desmond FitzGerald (Da Capo, 2004) |
AMERICAN POETS
This serving of the best of American humorous verse may be thin (it’s only 224 pages long), but it’s rich, so a little goes a long way. The greats of the genre are all here, including Edward Gorey, e.e. cummings, T. S. Eliot, and the irrepressible Ogden Nash. A precise, winning collection edited by poet John Hollander, American Wits makes poetry fun.
| AMERICAN WITS: AN ANTHOLOGY OF LIGHT VERSE, edited by John Hollander (Library of America, 2003) |
TOUGH GUYS
Mario Puzo made the Mafia romantic; Charlie Stella makes them comic. This mob caper pits a retiree from New York against a carnival of Las Vegas goons, losers, and crooks. If you like the wild antics of Carl Hiassen and Elmore Leonard, give Charlie Stella a chance. It’s an offer you can’t refuse.
| CHARLIE OPERA, by Charlie Stella (Carroll & Graf, 2003) |
DISHING THE DIRT
A Wolff in sheep’s clothing?
Journalist Michael Wolff, formerly the media columnist for New York magazine, once rubbed shoulders with the titans of the business—the Rupert Murdochs, Barry Dillers, and Michael Eisners—as he covered his beat. Now he bites the hand that fed him, in a scathing exposé of their business and personal practices. A raw and juicy read.
| AUTUMN OF THE MOGULS: MY MISADVENTURES WITH THE TITANS, POSEURS, AND MONEY GUYS WHO MASTERED AND MESSED UP BIG MEDIA, by Michael Wolff (HarperBusiness, 2003) |
END OF AN ERA
Splendid, romantic, and decadent, Vienna in 1913 glittered like a soap bubble about to pop. No one knew that World War I was around the corner, yet all the major players for a lifetime’s worth of history were there. Lenin, Stalin, and Trotsky were plotting revolution. Hitler was struggling as an artist. Freud and Jung were exploring the psyche. Kafka was writing absurdist novels. And a member of a small band of Serb nationalists was planning to assassinate Archduke Ferdinand. A dazzling work of history.
| THUNDER AT TWILIGHT: VIENNA 1913–1914, by Frederic Morton (DaCapo Press, 2001) |
A MASTERPIECE YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED
Consider this the sequel to The Odyssey. Odysseus arrives home in Ithaca at last to become reacquainted with his son and his wife, Penelope. Then Penelope drops the bombshell: Just after Odysseus left for Troy, she gave birth to his twin daughters. Now the three women are ready for adventures of their own. This is what has always been missing from ancient Greek literature—a female epic. Jane Rawlings even tells her story in blank verse.
| THE PENELOPEIA, by Jane Rawlings; illustrated by Heather Hurst (David R. Godine, 2002) |
GUIDES FOR THE PERPLEXED
Think of the Ig Nobel awards as the Darwin Awards for science. Ig Nobels are bestowed by Marc Abrahams, the editor and cofounder of the science humor magazine Annals of Improbable Research, for the most hare-brained “scientific” schemes. How about this one: a study to learn if listening to elevator music can reduce your risk of catching a cold. “So funny you couldn’t make it up,” promises the Washington Post.
| THE IG NOBEL PRIZES: THE ANNALS OF IMPROBABLE RESEARCH, by Marc Abrahams (Dutton, 2003) |
Benjamin Cheever’s pen oozes with humor in this satire of yuppie parenting. Miss Washington appears to be the archetype of child-care perfection, so why do her employers fear and mistrust her? Culminating in a suspected kidnapping and a half-million-dollar book deal, The Good Nanny is a good read as well as an irresistibly snarky look at parenting, child care, and thwarted ambitions.
| THE GOOD NANNY, by Benjamin Cheever (Bloomsbury, 2004) |
The transition from college to real life doesn’t go as smoothly as planned for the nameless hero of this first novel. The culture shock he experiences in his new job as junior lawyer at a white-glove firm is high voltage. When he says the wrong thing to the wrong partner, his spiral to hell is swift and painful. Publishers Weekly calls the book “relentless . . . witty and irreverent.”
| MAN OUT OF TIME, by Michael Hogan (Delta, 2003) |
FIELD GUIDES
Peterson field guides are among the most trusted in print. No wonder. Take its guide to trees, for instance. Here, in crystal-clear illustrations and text, are all the details you need to know to identify 243 of the most common trees found across the United States and Canada. Useful, sturdy, and compact, this is the ideal companion to take along on hikes in the woods or on a walk through the neighborhood.
| PETERSON FIRST GUIDE TO TREES, by George A. Petrides; illustrated by Janet Wehr and Olivia Petrides (Houghton Mifflin, 1998) |
IN HER OWN WORDS
“Flick your Bic.”
“Plop plop, fizz fizz, oh, what a relief it is!”
“I [heart] New York.”
Ring any bells? Mary Wells Lawrence is the brilliant sloganeer behind these and other famous advertising campaigns. She smashed the glass ceiling to become the first female president of an advertising agency. In this jaunty, delirious memoir we hear the highs and lows of three decades of sometimes maddening, always madcap adventures.
| A BIG LIFE IN ADVERTISING, by Mary Wells Lawrence (Touchstone, 2003) |
COMIC GENIUS
All hell breaks loose, in a genteel, English kind of way, when the newly widowed Mrs. Emmaline Lucas (Lucia to her friends) moves to the village of Tilling and attempts a society coup d’état. At the top of Tilling’s social ladder reigns Miss Elizabeth Mapp, a formidable woman who is not about to tolerate a usurper. And so Mapp and Lucia square off at garden parties, village fêtes, and intimate dinners, taking each other on in ways that are oh-so-polite yet oh-so-venomous. A hilarious send-up of English society in the 1930s.
| MAPP AND LUCIA, by E. F. Benson (1931; Moyer Bell, 2000) |
“Brutally witty. . . . On a par with Woody Allen’s Without Feathers and Steve Martin’s Cruel Shoes.”—Entertainment Weekly
“Terrific night table reading for lovers of intelligent satire . . . smart . . . refreshingly offensive . . . unapologetically un-PC.”—The Austin Chronicle
In a collection of eighteen hysterically funny and shockingly irreverent essays, stand-up comedian and talk show host Jon Stewart takes on politics, religion, and celebrities. A whip-smart two-step between comedy and scathing social commentary. PC-sensitive readers beware—all others, prepare to roar with laughter.
| NAKED PICTURES OF FAMOUS PEOPLE, by Jon Stewart (Perennial, 1999) |
A READER’S LIFE
Michael Dirda grew up in the rust-belt town of Lorian, Ohio. Dad was a steelworker, mom an anxious homemaker. Dirda’s refuge was reading: Comic books. Classics. Mystery novels. Just about anything that came his way. Between paeans to Sherlock Holmes and the Green Lantern, Dirda recalls the highlights of his childhood.
| AN OPEN BOOK: COMING OF AGE IN THE HEARTLAND, by Michael Dirda (W. W. Norton, 2003) |
KID STUFF
“It’s shocking that one person could have so many humiliating experiences and even more shocking that he chose to remember them. Kick Me is like an unofficial prequel to Freaks and Geeks.”—Ira Glass, radio host of This American Life
Paul Fieg, creator of the late-1990s cult sitcom Freaks and Geeks, has written a memoir of interlocking essays that tell of the hilarious horrors of his adolescent years. Fieg’s brutal honesty leaves readers howling with laughter and cringing in empathetic pain. From prom dates gone awry to the daily hell of the locker room, Kick Me recounts surviving elementary, middle, and high school as an insecure bundle of pubescent awkwardness.
| KICK ME: ADVENTURES IN ADOLESCENCE, by Paul Fieg (Three Rivers Press, 2002) |
A MASTERPIECE YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED
The Chicago Tribune calls Baxter “one of our most gifted writers,” and his fourth novel, The Feast of Love, was a finalist for the National Book Award. It’s about a man who goes on a moonlit stroll, during which he runs into an acquaintance who tells him the first of a series of stories of love. The New York Times calls the book “as precise, as empathetic, as luminous as any of Baxter’s past work. It is also rich, juicy, laugh-out-loud funny and completely engrossing.”
| THE FEAST OF LOVE, by Charles Baxter (Vintage, 2001) |
FINE THINGS
Eight hundred pages on the history of art sounds like hard work, but you’re in good hands with Paul Johnson. The eminent British historian loves art, and it shows in this compulsively readable and useful work. Readers will get to know the artists from prehistory to the present and to understand their times, their techniques, and their places in history. Lively and comprehensive, the book is a treasure.
| ART: A NEW HISTORY, by Paul Johnson (HarperCollins, 2003) |
If anyone should know how to construct and tell a good story, it’s a literary agent. And Frances Kuffel delivers the goods in this touching, often hilarious narrative of her decision at age 42 to lose a few pounds—188 of them, to be precise (at the book’s opening, Kuffel weighs 313 pounds). It’s funny and tender, a journey of transformation, not merely of the body but of the mind.
| PASSING FOR THIN: LOSING HALF MY WEIGHT AND FINDING MYSELF, by Frances Kuffel (Broadway Books, 2004) |
“Holden Caulfield goes to Hollywood.”—Talk
“. . . takes us into an alien culture, Hollywood . . . and evokes that kitschy world with spectacularly deadpan humor.” —The Atlantic Monthly
Darcy O’Brien won a PEN/Hemingway Award for this unforgettably bittersweet coming-of-age novel. The son of two divorced and faded Hollywood stars, our hero recalls his growing up with rich and famous parents and learning to adjust to their glories and defeats.
| A WAY OF LIFE LIKE ANY OTHER, by Darcy O’Brien; introduction by Seamus Heaney (1977; New York Review Books, 2001) |
HISTORICAL FICTION
Novelist Mary Renault retells the myth of Theseus, Minotaur slayer, in haunting, suspenseful form. Theseus, the middle-aged king of Athens, has taken a beautiful young woman, Phaedra, as his new wife. But Phaedra’s interest in the king wanes after she sees his Adonis-like son, Hippolytus. Brace yourself for a Greek tragedy up to its ears in sexual tension. “Excellent entertainment,” says the New York Times Book Review.
| THE BULL FROM THE SEA, by Mary Renault (1962; Vintage Books, 2001) |
Edgy, smart, and filled with a wicked sense of irony and wit, this collection of Amy Hempel’s stories has become a classic. The New York Times Book Review praises Hempel as “potentially the most exciting of the writers of her generation.” The Chicago Tribune calls her “a master.” Find out what the fuss is all about.
| REASONS TO LIVE, by Amy Hempel (HarperPerennial, 1995) |
GONZO FICTION
“An audacious act of creativity. . . . Of all the young novelists working today, Tibor Fischer may be the most adept at taking chances in his work.”—The Nation
Set during the early days of the Communist rule of Hungary, this madcap novel follows two basketball players as they roam the land looking for food, sex, and a way out of their country.
| UNDER THE FROG, by Tibor Fischer (Picador, 2001) |
WIT’S END
Christopher Buckley’s novels are junk food for political junkies. They are hilarious send-ups of government ineptitude, political correctness, and America’s obsession with celebrity and publicity. Florence of Arabia is Buckley at his wry best. The Middle East needs to change, and the gal to make it happen is sexy mid-level State Department operative Florence Farfaletti. Her plan: Bring women’s rights to the region to promote stability. Good luck, Florence!
| FLORENCE OF ARABIA, by Christopher Buckley (Random House, 2004) |
“A soaring celebration of the victory of love over time.”—Chicago Tribune
“Tremendous grace and imagination. . . . A love story without softness or flinching.” —Washington Post Book World
“An enchanting novel, beautifully crafted and as dazzlingly imaginative as it is dizzingly romantic.”—Scott Turow
A Today Show Book Club selection and one of People magazine’s top ten books of 2003, The Time Traveler’s Wife is a love story unlike any other. Read it to see why.
| THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE, by Audrey Niffenegger (Harvest Books, 2004) |
FABULOUS FANTASY
“Dark genius” is a phrase that turns up again and again in reviews of Anne Bishop’s Black Jewels Trilogy. The three novels follow the coming of age of Jaenelle Angelline, a child of the magic-using people known as the Blood. Brimming with romance, violence, and Machiavellian intrigue on a supernatural scale, this is a compulsively readable series.
| THE BLACK JEWELS TRILOGY: DAUGHTER OF THE BLOOD, HEIR TO THE SHADOWS, QUEEN OF DARKNESS, by Anne Bishop (Roc, 2003) |
A CLASSICAL EDUCATION
In the most inspired approach to Greek mythology ever, Vanessa James has created a full-blown genealogical chart that shows how all the gods, demigods, heroes, harpies, titans, and strange creatures of every description are related. How comprehensive is it? Very; it’s 17 feet long! Individual panels are devoted to each distinct branch of the Greek pantheon. The entire work is thoroughly indexed and annotated, and there are 125 full-color gorgeous photos. It’s an ideal treat for a student heading back to school.
| THE GENEALOGY OF GREEK MYTHOLOGY: AN ILLUSTRATED FAMILY TREE OF GREEK MYTH FROM THE FIRST GODS TO THE FOUNDERS OF ROME, by Vanessa James (Gotham Books, 2003) |
“A rollicking and intellectually absorbing ride through the last 500 years of Western science.” —Washington Post Book World
It’s hard to imagine an almost-700-page book on science being “rollicking,” but John Gribbin pulls it off. In lively, readable prose, he takes us from the Renaissance to the present, emphasizing how the lives and personalities of the scientists influenced their findings. An eye-opening read from the bestselling author of In Search of Schroedinger’s Cat.
| THE SCIENTISTS: A HISTORY OF SCIENCE TOLD THROUGH THE LIVES OF ITS GREATEST INVENTORS, by John Gribbin (Random House, 2003) |
HISTORY’S MYSTERIES
In 1717 the Prussian emperor Frederick I gave Tsar Peter the Great a unique and generous gift: wall-size panels made of intricately carved amber said to cover an entire room. In 1941 the “Amber Room” was stolen by Nazi soldiers, never to resurface. Authors Scott-Clark and Levy, two prize-winning investigative journalists, write about their research findings in declassified KGB files and East German police files, the symbolic importance of the Amber Room, and the possible whereabouts of the historic treasure.
| THE AMBER ROOM: THE FATE OF THE WORLD’S GREATEST LOST TREASURE, by Catherine Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy (Walker, 2004) |
FABULOUS FANTASY
Simon R. Green is a master of the fantasy genre, best known for his beloved Hawk and Fisher adventures and the Deathstalker series. Drinking Midnight Wine, filled with comedy and romance, is something of a departure for him. It’s the story of a slacker who proves himself when he gets sucked into the cosmic struggle between Good and Evil.
| DRINKING MIDNIGHT WINE, by Simon R. Green (Roc, 2002) |
MERRY PRANKSTERS
“Hyde is one of our true superstars of nonfiction.” —David Foster Wallace
“The most subtle, thorough, and brilliant mythologist we now have.”—Robert Bly
Lewis Hyde is a MacArthur Fellow and the former director of creative writing at Harvard University. His work is some of the quirkiest and most diverse you’ll find. In this book he pleads the case of the trickster—the disruptive pranksters of myth and reality and their importance to cultural development and creativity.
| TRICKSTER MAKE THIS WORLD: MISCHIEF, MYTH AND ART, by Lewis Hyde (North Point Press, 1998) |
NOTORIOUS
Poor Captain Kidd. He’s gone down in history as a ruthless pirate, when in fact he was just a successful bounty hunter. It was his nemesis, Robert Culliford, who was the real pirate. Richard Zacks documents their wild high-seas feud with zest, sparing no brutal, drunken, cruel, or lecherous detail. Time magazine calls the book “enthralling . . . rich . . . riotous.”
| THE PIRATE HUNTER: THE TRUE STORY OF CAPTAIN KIDD, by Richard Zacks (Hyperion, 2003) |
Throughout William Bloom’s childhood, his father, Edward, told tall tales about himself, always greatly embellished with fictional details and sometimes with flat-out lies. As Edward lies in bed dying, William struggles to understand who his “true father” is. Big Fish, surprisingly different from its movie adaptation, is an incredibly poignant novel that USA Today calls “a comic novel about the mysteries of death, about the mysteries of parents and the redemptive power of storytelling.”
| BIG FISH, by Daniel Wallace (Penguin, 1999) |
A MASTERPIECE YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED
“So precise, so distilled, so beautiful that one doesn’t want to miss any pleasure it might yield.”—The New York Times Book Review
This story of two sisters growing up in Fingerbone, Idaho, with an assortment of oddball relatives is disarmingly wonderful. Readers often praise the humor of the story and the vividness of the characters, but what really makes an impression is the sheer gorgeousness of Marilynne Robinson’s prose.
| HOUSEKEEPING, by Marilynne Robinson (1980; Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997) |
REDISCOVERED CLASSIC
“So funny and charming . . .”
That’s E. M. Forster’s take on this hilarious satire by master humorist Beerbohm, or “the incomparable Max,” as George Bernard Shaw called him. Beerbohm’s only novel imagines what would happen if a smoldering bombshell found her way into the hallowed—and all-male—halls of Oxford. Don’t miss this comic masterpiece.
| ZULEIKA DOBSON, by Max Beerbohm (1911; Modern Library, 1998) |
BESTSELLER
Looking for a rip-roaring, old-fashioned action yarn? Then look to Clive Cussler. His bestselling books are beloved for their wildly inventive plots, breakneck pace, and characters’ heroic derring-do. Trojan Odyssey is the 17th book to feature Dirk Pitt, undersea adventurer extraordinaire. In this one, he reunites with his long-lost twin children to save the world from domination by an evil madman who is controlling the tides. Far-fetched? Yes, but see if doesn’t hook you.
| TROJAN ODYSSEY, by Clive Cussler (Putnam, 2003) |
Home-improvement projects always seem to involve more hassle than you’d expect. So imagine Pope Julius II’s troubles in having the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling painted. First there’s the unwilling artist to cajole, then there are the technical challenges (how to build the scaffold, how to apply the paint, etc.). And don’t forget the money problems, bickering artists’ rivalries, warring factions to attend to . . . It was overwhelming. But the history of it is fascinating.
| MICHELANGELO AND THE POPE’S CEILING, by Ross King (Penguin, 2003) |
In the first half of the 20th century, Lord Dunsany’s inventive fantasy novels won acclaim from writers as disparate as Arthur C. Clarke and William Butler Yeats, and Dunsany influenced writers from J.R.R. Tolkien to Neil Gaiman. The King of Elfland’s Daughter, regarded as one of his best novels, is the story of a mortal man’s quest into the realm of Elfland to win an elf princess as his bride. The story has all the magic of Celtic mythology, but readers of contemporary fantasy novels will be delighted to find that the author did not follow the established plotlines. A must for fantasy fans.
| THE KING OF ELFLAND’S DAUGHTER, by Lord Dunsany (1924; Del Rey Impact, 1999) |
UNDERSTANDING OUR WORLD
Is intelligent life found throughout the cosmos? And how can we, from the limited perspective of our small planet, define “life” and “intelligence” for a host of solar systems? David Grinspoon, a space scientist at the Southwest Research Institute, tackles these tough questions in a way that is accessible, engaging, sometimes even poetic.
| LONELY PLANETS: THE NATURAL PHILOSOPHY OF ALIEN LIFE, by David Grinspoon (HarperCollins, 2003) |
Overexposure may have pushed the leaning Tower of Pisa into the realm of kitsch, but Shrady is determined to rescue Italy’s most recognizable landmark from that ignominy. In this entertaining history he sorts fact from fable, lays out Pisa’s role as one of the mightiest sea powers of the Middle Ages, and tells why during World War II the Allies considered blowing up the tower. He explains why the tower leans, when it first started to tilt, and the various schemes proposed (and tried) over the years to stabilize it. All history books should be so readable.
| TILT: A SKEWED HISTORY OF THE TOWER OF PISA, by Nicholas Shrady (Simon & Schuster, 2005) |
GONZO FICTION
An inventive novel, told alongside scraps of ephemera such as letters and lottery cards. The story is that of two friends and a wild road trip through California and Mexico. Colorful and lively, and the plot is made even more exciting by the novel’s unique and vibrant design.
| CARAMBA: A TALE TOLD IN TURNS OF THE CARD, by Nina Marie Martinez (Alfred A. Knopf, 2004) |
SCREWBALL FICTION
A snappy romp of a novel that’s just what fans of P. G. Wodehouse look for. Charles Hythloday is a lazy dilettante who knocks around the family estate outside Dublin, drinking gimlets and daydreaming until reality intrudes: His mother has cut off his money and he must get a job. Never! Quirky characters arrive on the scene, misunderstandings arise, and witty banter is exchanged. It’s a farce that works brilliantly, buoyantly well.
| AN EVENING OF LONG GOODBYES, by Paul Murray (Random House, 2004) |
FABULOUS FANTASY
Rosemary Kirstein blends science fiction with classic fantasy in this spirited adventure novel. A woman seeks the truth of why demons are rampaging through a small village and ends up going on a wild journey far from human lands. A smart, innovative novel whose characters and plot will delight fantasy fans. If you like Ursula K. LeGuin, give Rosemary Kirstein a try.
| THE LOST STEERSMAN, by Rosemary Kirstein (Del Rey, 2003) |
INVENTIVE MINDS
Did you know that J.R.R. Tolkien was one of the finest medievalists of the 20th century? As Tom Shippey, one of Tolkien’s colleagues at Oxford, reveals in this study, it was the ancient mythology of northern Europe that inspired so much of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Even the names of the dwarfs were lifted from a Norse saga. An insightful view of the writer’s mind.
| THE ROAD TO MIDDLE-EARTH: HOW J.R.R. TOLKIEN CREATED A NEW MYTHOLOGY (revised and expanded edition), by Tom Shippey (Houghton Mifflin, 2003) |
THE GREAT OUTDOORS
In the late 19th century no American spoke more eloquently or passionately than John Muir about the necessity of preserving the Western landscape. This volume from the splendid Library of America series chronicles Muir’s earliest love affair with the wilderness. “Stickeen” is our favorite piece. It’s a moving account of Muir’s adventures on a glacier with a friend’s dog.
| JOHN MUIR: NATURE WRITINGS, edited by William Cronon (Library of America, 1997) |
WEIRDER THAN FICTION
In 1976, when he had just finished college, Sam Kashner decided to pursue a career as a poet. He was accepted as a student at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics in Boulder, Colorado. As the school’s first (and for a while only) student, he had the privilege of completing and typing Allen Ginsberg’s poems, cleaning Rinpoche’s house, and preventing Gregory Corso from scoring heroin. A warm, weird, funny memoir that deromanticizes the Beats.
| WHEN I WAS COOL: MY LIFE AT THE JACK KEROUAC SCHOOL, by Sam Kashner (HarperCollins, 2004) |
THE READER’S LIFE
Virginia Woolf used to say that “if the characters are real, the novel will have a chance.” With that notion as his kickoff, André Bernard has tracked down the origins of some of the most vibrant characters in fiction. Were Anna Karenina and Madame Bovary based on real women? What made Robert Louis Stevenson decide to give Long John Silver a peg leg? Was it whimsy that persuaded Agatha Christie to make Hercule Poirot a Belgian? A delightful volume, brimming with the type of inside information that book lovers love.
| MADAME BOVARY, C’EST MOI: THE GREAT CHARACTERS OF LITERATURE AND WHERE THEY CAME FROM, by André Bernard (W. W. Norton, 2003) |
“One of those rare, satisfying books in which nothing much happens and yet nothing is left unchanged.”—The New Yorker
“I couldn’t put this book down.”—Ann Beattie
Midsummer, a riff on Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, sees a diverse group of friends gather at a summer estate by the Hudson River. The group mingles and drinks and talks in an atmosphere of languor and privilege. If Edith Wharton’s House of Mirth were set in the present day, it might be something like this novel.
| MIDSUMMER, by Marcelle Clements (Harvest, 2004) |
Quirky and wonderful. Window Seat is a guide to the landscape of America from the sky. With the help of 70 aerial photographs, veteran journalist Dicum explains exactly what you see from the plane, when you see it, and why it looks the way it does. You’ll learn to identify natural wonders, including canyons and waterways, as well as not-so-natural ones, such as prisons, oil wells, and Interstates. The perfect gift for frequent fliers.
| WINDOW SEAT: READING THE LANDSCAPE FROM THE AIR, by Gregory Dicum (Chronicle, 2004) |
THE READER’S LIFE
Do the classics still inspire and enlighten? At the age of 48, journalist David Denby returned to his alma mater, Columbia University, to enroll in the core-curriculum class on great books in order to answer this question. The course had taken flak in the wake of political correctness—it featured books by authors from the traditional canon of literature: Ovid, Boccaccio, Montaigne, and Austen, to name a few. Read this delightful course-in-a-book (the contents cleverly follow the school calendar, complete with semesters and breaks) to find out.
| GREAT BOOKS, by David Denby (Simon & Schuster, 1994) |
Kaplow’s first novel is a must read for all theater junkies. It’s the story of Richard, a high school student who is cast in Orson Welles’s landmark production of Julius Caesar. This novel is enormous fun. Richard falls in love with one female cast member after another, but the real beauty of the novel is Robert Kaplow’s portrait of the brilliant, mercurial Welles. A polished debut.
| ME AND ORSON WELLES, by Robert Kaplow (MacAdam/Cage, 2003) |
HISTORICAL FICTION
Attilus, a Roman engineer, heads to Pompeii to repair a faulty aqueduct. The year is A.D. 79 and Mount Vesuvius is about to blow. Robert Harris does a bang-up job with the period details, and what he has to say about volcanoes makes for fascinating reading. Brace yourself for the climactic final chapters of this exciting novel.
| POMPEII: A NOVEL, by Robert Harris (Random House, 2003) |
GIFT BOOK
This book seeks to make the world a better place in its own quirky way. It takes famous works of art and reorganizes them. So, in the famous painting of Van Gogh’s bedroom, all the clutter—and furniture, actually—is moved to his bed. Paul Klee’s randomly scattered patches of color are neatly stacked. And Magritte’s apples are rearranged according to the author’s whim. Tidying Up Art is a hilarious, inexpensive gift book for neatniks and art lovers alike.
| TIDYING UP ART, by Ursus Wehrli (Prestel Publishing, 2003) |
“Outrageous . . . insulting, inflammatory, profane, and absolutely great reading.” —Washington Post Book World
Satirist O’Rourke takes no prisoners in this blistering survey of the United States government. First published at the end of the Reagan era, Parliament of Whores has lost none of its bite. A rollicking read.
| PARLIAMENT OF WHORES: A LONE HUMORIST ATTEMPTS TO EXPLAIN THE ENTIRE U.S. GOVERNMENT, by P. J. O’Rourke; foreword by Andrew Ferguson (Grove Press, 2003) |
FOR READERS OF ALL AGES
“Don’t miss this hilarious and touching book.” —The Boston Globe
“This book is outrageous, lively, funny, and wonderful. The Christmas story takes on a strangely moving depth of meaning and shines through with a new brilliance.” —The Denver Post
The Herdman children are horrid. They lie, steal, curse, and burn down buildings. So everyone is astonished when they take over the church Christmas pageant. The results are funny and touching. Don’t miss this children’s classic—the whole family will love it.
| THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER, by Barbara Robinson (HarperTrophy, 1988) |
HOLIDAY READING
Who set up the first Christmas tree? When did candy canes become associated with the holiday? When did the Nutcracker ballet and Handel’s Messiah become Christmas classics? And what about Yule logs, mistletoe, holly, and hanging stockings by the fireplace? In a book that is both enchanting and informative, Ace Collins uncovers the fascinating origins of Christmas traditions. The book brims with Christmas spirit and lore.
| STORIES BEHIND THE GREAT TRADITIONS OF CHRISTMAS, by Ace Collins (Zondervan, 2003) |
“A fascinating memoir . . . , intensely personal and often moving.”—The New York Times Book Review.
“An elegant meditation on language and literature.” —The Boston Globe
Playwright Dorfman has spent a lifetime fleeing countries and fleeing languages. As a child he fled Argentina for the U.S., then went from the U.S. to Chile and then back to the U.S. Heading South, Looking North is his fascinating memoir of language and its relationship to identity.
| HEADING SOUTH, LOOKING NORTH: A BILINGUAL JOURNEY, by Ariel Dorfman (Penguin, 1999) |
A LIFE WITH BOOKS
Nancy Pearl is a hipster librarian and radio commentator who developed the idea of encouraging whole cities to read the same book and discuss it. Pearl’s literary picks are always interesting and sometimes utterly quirky (for instance, One Good Turn: A Natural History of the Screwdriver and the Screw). With 170 categories ranging from “First Novels” to “Our Primates/Our Selves,” this is an ideal handbook for the book lover who can never decide what to read next. Sound like someone you know?
| BOOK LUST: RECOMMENDED READING FOR MOOD, MOMENT, AND REASON, by Nancy Pearl (Sasquatch Books, 2003) |
GUIDES FOR THE PERPLEXED
As school curriculums become more and more a seat-of-the-pants affair, more and more adults are striving to fill in the gaps in their own education themselves. Susan Wise Bauer’s handbook is just what such self-starters need. She explains how to acquire the habit of regular, disciplined reading; what to look for when reading; and finally, what books to read. For each of her five topics—fiction, autobiography and memoir, history and politics, drama, and poetry—she provides 30 major works, with a one-page synopsis for each. An intelligent, invaluable resource.
| THE WELL-EDUCATED MIND: A GUIDE TO THE CLASSICAL EDUCATION YOU NEVER HAD, by Susan Wise Bauer (W. W. Norton, 2003) |
“A fascinating memoir . . . , intensely personal and often moving.”—The New York Times Book Review.
“An elegant meditation on language and literature.” —The Boston Globe
Playwright Dorfman has spent a lifetime fleeing countries and fleeing languages. As a child he fled Argentina for the U.S., then went from the U.S. to Chile and then back to the U.S. Heading South, Looking North is his fascinating memoir of language and its relationship to identity.
| HEADING SOUTH, LOOKING NORTH: A BILINGUAL JOURNEY, by Ariel Dorfman (Penguin, 1999) |
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