All in Fiction
After recently reading the wonderful Jane Austen Book Club, I decided to re-read (or read for the first time) all of Jane Austen’s books. Critics agree that one of the reasons for Austen’s continued popularity is her stunning ability to accurately portray the manners of her time. I think that Anna Quindlen has a similar ability.
Having read about this National Book Award winner, I knew it was the story of a family making a road trip to pick up their father as he is released from prison. What I didn’t know is that the book is set in Mississippi, the mother is a young black woman, the inmate is a young white man and their two children and her best friend make the long road trip with her. The writing is gorgeous.
It wasn’t until I got to the end of this book that I realized how it came to be. My assumption was that Goodwin wrote the novel and then was asked to turn it into a mini-series. Come to find out, she was writing the mini-series when someone suggested to her that she should novelize her scripts and sell that too. I mention this because, if you have seen the BBC/PBS mini-series, you probably don’t need to bother reading the book.
This debut novel by a young Cree woman was the first I’ve read by a First Nations author. It has been widely praised and publicized in Canada, and has been on my reading list for quite some time. I think, if you are open to her writing style, and a more metaphorical subject matter, this book might just break your heart and give you hope.
My wonderful husband gave me The Vineyard for Christmas based on the fact that we both love all things wine-related, and the back of the book mentions a love story. And although these qualifications are more than enough for me to read something (as a youngster I would pick anything with a pink cover), neither the vineyard nor the love story showed up until the final third of the book. That warning aside, I enjoyed The Vineyard, though it took a while for me to warm up to it.
This was a fascinating book to read while eight months pregnant, though I can’t imagine anyone who wouldn’t be captivated by such a compact and beautiful narrative. The central topic is a young woman desperate for a child, and all that ensues as she struggles to conceive.
This was my first Zadie Smith experience, and I plan to read as much of her as I can as soon as possible! Her books are split almost evenly between fiction and essays which is unusual, and makes me even more eager to get inside her mind.
The Sellout has been on my reading list for a while now, not only by recommendation, but also because it won Beatty the Man Booker Prize, the first time an American had done so. I began with high expectations and was nearly stopped in my tracks by the prologue. Here Beatty’s roots as a slam poet are on full display, and without much plot to grab onto, the reader is thrown hundreds of references in a giant swirl of politics.
The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane will transport you to another place and time. The novel opens in a remote, tiny village in a mountainous part of China, where extended families live in community with their neighbors, all of whom pick, dry and sell tea just as their ancestors did. Li-yan, our adolescent main character, introduces us to her people’s way of life – their customs, rituals and beliefs.
After reading Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng's second novel, I have officially added her to my "must read any new book" list. I so enjoyed her first novel, Everything I Never Told You, that I was excited to see if her sophomore work could measure up. And it does! This book is wonderful!
This book is disturbing, I am not going to sugar-coat it. That said, I highly recommend it. Told from an ever-changing perspective, All The Ugly And Wonderful Things drops you into life in the rural southwest, and introduces you to a world where morals, rules and even laws depend on who is speaking and to whom.
As most of my family know, I have made it my goal since moving to Canada almost three years ago, to read more Canadian fiction. I like getting a sense of the country’s history without actually having to read a history book. So I was excited to receive Clara Callan, a winner of the Governor Generals Award, for Christmas this year.
What goodness for Claire Messud, who consistently writes fabulous novels. Her latest, The Burning Girl, is no exception. In fact, I’m not sure how I managed to omit her from my list in December’s L & L Review of authors who I race to read whenever they publish new books.
I loved this book and am so grateful to my friend Jane for recommending it! Described as having the atmosphere of a “noir thriller,” Manhattan Beach follows the life of Anna Kerrigan, from when she is a little girl and tagging along with her beloved father on some questionable business deals, through his disappearance when she is 12-years-old.
The Immortalists is another fabulous book – this one recommended to me by my friend Linda. I agree with her endorsement. The story begins in the summer of 1969 in New York City. Four siblings, ranging in age from 9 to 13, are trying to escape boredom and decide to visit a mystic who claims she can tell each of them the date on which they will die. To say they are spooked as each meets with the woman individually, would be an understatement.
I have been wanting to read this book for a long time, and I know I am quite late to the game in singing its praises. This book is a modern classic, and one of the best books I have read in a long time.
In a previous issue, I reviewed We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler. I loved that book so much, that I gave it as a Christmas gift and found myself exploring what else Fowler had written. Happily, I found The Jane Austen Book Club, written nine years before We Are All Completely… Although very different from her other book, The Jane Austen Book Club is similarly innovative both in its story and in the way that Fowler tells it.
Right off the bat I want to say that this Giller Prize winner is deserving of the honor, and well worth the lengthy commitment. Thien’s prose is gorgeous and evocative and the story subject was one completely foreign to me.
Full Disclosure: This is the first Dave Eggers book I’ve ever read, so that fact that it is essentially a beach read is probably weird. The book opens with protagonist Mae Holland heading to The Circle for her first day at a new job. She is thrilled because this is the most important and respected company in the country, and probably the world.
To The Back of Beyond was recommended to me by a friend and I whole-heartedly recommend this beautiful book to all of you. As I reflect on what makes it so compelling, I feel it’s not only that it's a poignant story about a young husband who suddenly and unexpectedly walks away from his happy marriage and two small children, but also the manner in which Stamm writes.
