October 2016 Book List

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October 2016 Book List

Independent Booksellers

Commonwealth by Ann Patchett

Razor Girl by Carl Hiaasen

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

Nutshell by Ian McEwan

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

Home by Harlan Coben

Here I Am by Jonathan Safran Foer

A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny

The Nix by Nathan Hill

Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew’d by Alan Bradley

The Wonder by Emma Donoghue

The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena

An Obvious Fact by Craig Johnson

Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson

Mischling by Affinity Konar

Surrender, New York by Caleb Carr

Heroes of the Frontier by Dave Eggers

The Last Days of Night by Graham Moore

Death’s End by Cixin Liu

Jerusalem by Alan Moore

The Jealous Kind by James Lee Burke

Lady Cop Makes Trouble by Amy Stewart.

Leave Me by Gayle Foreman

First Comes Love by Emily Griffin

Manitou Canyon by William Kent Krueger

The Kept Woman by Karin Slaughter

The Risen by Ron Rash

Sting by Sandra Brown

Envelope Poems by Emily Dickinson

Amazon

Biographies and Memoirs

Spaceman: An Astronauts Unlikely Journey to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe by Mike Massimino

Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life by Ruth Franklin

The French Chef in America: Julia Child’s Second Act by Alex Prudhomme

My Own Words by Ruth Bader Ginsburg

A Life in Paris by Bryan Cranston

Hungry Heart: Adventures in Life, Love and Writing by Jennifer Weiner

Literature and Fiction

All that Man Is: A Novel by David Szalay

The Wangs vs. the World by Jade Chang

Small Great Things: A Novel by Jodi Picoult

News of the World: A Novel by Paulette Jiles

Our Hearts Will Burn Us Down: A Novel by Anne Valente

Among the Living by Jonathan Rabb

Nicotine: A Novel by Nell Zink

The Mothers: A Novel by Brit Bennett

A Gambler’s Anatomy: A Novel by Jonathan Lethem

Hag Seed (Hogarth Shakespeare) by Margaret Atwood

Today Will Be Different by Maria Semple

Mystery and Thrillers

IQ by Joe Ide

The Secret History of Twin Peaks by Mark Frost

Order to Kill by Vince Flynn

The Girl from Venice by Martin Cruz Smith

By Gaslight: A Novel by Steven Price

Seduced (A Hannah Smith Novel) by Randy Wayne White

His Bloody Project: Documents Relating to the Case of Roderick Macrae by Graeme McCrae Burnet

The Trespasser by Tana French

Coffin Road by Peter May

Science Fiction and Fantasy

Crosstalk by Connie Willis

The Ferryman Institute: A Novel by Colin Gigl

New York Times Book Review

Nutshell by Ian McEwan

Here I Am by Jonathan Safran Foer

Hillary’s First 100 Days by David Mandel

Ark by Julian Tepper

Liberty Street by Dianne Warren

Mischling by Affinity Konar

Commonwealth by Ann Patchett

Crime Fiction

Darktown by Thomas Mullen

The Vanished by Lotte and Søren Hammer trans. by Martin Aitken

Sorrow Road by Julia Keller

Beloved Poison by E. S. Thomson

Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen NF

Sleeping on Jupiter by Anuradha Roy

Razor Girl by Carl Hiaasen

Perfume River by Robert Olen Butler

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towle

Loner by Teddy Wayne

When in French: Love in a Second Language by Lauren Collins

The Fortunes by Peter Ho Davies

Little Nothing by Marisa Silver

The Minotaur Takes His Own Sweet Time by Steven Sherrill

The Gloaming by Melanie Finn

The Wonder by Emma Donoghue

The Ballroom by Anna Hope

The Other Side of the World by Stephanie Bishop

The Trespasser by Tana French

Crime Fiction

Hell Fire by Karin Fossum

Home by Harlen Coben

The Shattered Tree by Charles Todd

Daisy in Chains by Sharon Bolton (read it with a friend)

Publishers Weekly

Fire in the Stars by Barbara Fradkin

The Wangs vs the World by Jade Chang

By Gaslight: A Novel by Steven Price

Demon, Vol. 1 by Jason Shiga

All That Man Is by David Szalay

Holiday Gifts for Readers

Commonwealth: A Novel by Ann Patchett

Hag Seed by Margaret Atwood

The Mothers by Brit Bennett

Swing Time by Zadie Smith

Everfair by Nisi Shawl

The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin

Eleanor Roosevelt: The War Years and After 1939-1962 by Blanche Wiesin Cook

Compiled by Nancy Brisson

September 2016 Book List

stack of books on the dark wood background. toning. selective focus on the middle book — from a Google image search

Book List

New York Times Book Review – Every Sunday the NYT’s reviewers write about the newest books on the market. Here are most of the titles discussed in August, 2016, more fiction than nonfiction.

How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything by Rosa Brooks (NF)

I’m Supposed to Protect You From All This by Nadja Spiegelman (Memoir)

Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube by Blair Braverman (NF)

Bright, Precious Days by Jay McInerney

Break in Case of Emergency by Jessica Winters

Conrad and Eleanor by Jane Rodgers

Listen to Me by Hannah Pittard

Leaving Lucy Pear by Anna Solomon

Hot Milk by Deborah Levy

The Unseen World by Liz Moore

This Must Be the Place by Maggie O’Farrell

The Inseparables by Stuart Nadler

Southern Fiction

A Thousand Miles From Nowhere by John Gregory Brown

Nitro Mountain by Lee Clay Johnson

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (Oprah’s Book Club)

We Could Be Beautiful by Swan Huntley

Cousin Joseph by Jules Feiffer (Graphic Novel)

Love, Sex and Other Foreign Policy Goals by Jesse Armstrong

Max Gate by Damien Wilkins

Chance Developments by Alexander McCall Smith

Paradise Lodge by Nina Stibbe

Still Here by Lara Vapnyar

Dr, Knox by Peter Spiegelman

Security by Gina Wohlsdorf

God, Realigned: The Era of Reformation by Michael Massing (NF)

American Heiress by Jeffrey Toobin (NF)

The Couple Next Door by Harlan Coben

Surrender, New York by Caleb Carr “addictive crime procedural”

War and Turpentine by Stefan Hertmans

Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson

The Senility of Vladimir P by Michael Honig

Losing It by Emma Rathbone

Harmony by Carolyn Parkhurst

Powerhouse by James Andrew Miller (NF)

I Contain Multitudes by Ed Yong (NF)

Scream by Tama Janowitz (NF)

Modernity and Its Discontents by Steven B. Smith (NF)

Against Everything by Mark Greif (NF)

Necessary Trouble by Sarah Jaffe (NF)

The Great Suppression by Zachery Roth(NF)

From Humans of New York to Obama’s Office: How a Principal Built a School by Nadia Lopez

Crime Fiction

Rise the Dark by Michael Koryta

Still Mine by Amy Stuart

Nothing Short of Dying by Erik Storey

The Wages of Desire by Stephen Kelly

From French

One Hundred Twenty-One Days by Michèle Audin

Constellation by Adrien Bosc

Abahn Sabana David by Marguerite Duras

Mon Ami Amèricaine by Michèle Halberstadt

Publisher’s Weekly – Book List

The Senility of Vladimir P by Michael Honig

To the Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey

The Chosen Ones by Steve Sem-Sandberg

American Heiress: The Wild Saga of The Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst by Jeffrey Toobin (NF)

Still Here by Lara Vapnyar

Patient H.M.: A Story of Memory, Madness, and Family Secrets by Luke Dittrich (NF)

The Wages of Desire: An Inspector Lamb Mystery by Stephen Kelly

Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson

All at Sea: A Memoir by Decca Aitkenhead

The Golden Age by Joan London

A Quiet Place by Seicho Matsumoto

Riverine: A Memoir From Anywhere But Here by Angela Palm (Memoir)

Damaged by Lisa Scottoline

The Dollhouse by Fiona Davis

Zama by Antonio Di Benedetto

The One Man by Andrew Gross

Company Confessions: Secrets, Memoirs, and the CIA by Christopher Moran (NF)

Moo by Sharon Creech

The Black Prince of Florence: The Spectacular Life and Treacherous World of Alessandro di Medici by Catherine Fletcher (NF)

A Shocking Assassination by Cora Harrison

The Nix: A Novel by Nathan Hill

IRL by Tommy Pico

Blood in the Water: the Attica Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy by Heather Ann Thompson (NF)

Independent Booksellers – Book List

Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty

Heroes of the Frontier by Dave Eggers

Three Sisters, Three Queens by Philippa Gregory

The Last Days of Nights by Graham Moore

A Banquet of Consequences by Elizabeth George

First Comes Love by Emily Griffin

Bright, Precious Days by Jay McInerney

Harmony by Carolyn Parkhurst

The Hamilton Affair by Elizabeth Cobbs Hoffman

The Muse by Jessie Burton

The Singles Game by Lauren Weisberger

You Will Know Me by Megan Abbott

To the Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey

The Book That Matters Most by Ann Hood

Amazon

Best Books for August

Another Brooklyn: A Novel by Jacqueline Woodson

Behold the Dreamers: A Novel by Imbolo Mbue

I’m Supposed to Protect You From All This by Nadja Spiegelman (Memoir)

Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty

Harmony by Carolyn Parkhurst

The Bright Edge of the World: A Novel by Eowyn Ivey

The Last Days Night: A Novel by Graham Moore

Good as Gone by Amy Gentry

Christodora: A Novel by Timothy Murphy

American Heiress: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst by Jeffrey Toobin

Literature and Fiction

Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue

Heroes of the Frontier by Dave Eggers

The Bright Edge of the World: A Novel by Eowyn Ivey

Bright, Precious Days: A Novel by Jay McInerney

Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty

I Will Send Rain: A Novel by Rae Meadows

Another Brooklyn: A Novel by Jacqueline Woodson

Christodora: A Novel by Timothy Murphy

Carousel Court: A Novel by Joe McGinniss Jr.

Harmony by Carolyn Parkhurst

The Gentleman: A Novel by Forrest Leo

The Dollhouse: A Novel by Fiona Davis

Three Sisters, Three Queens by Philippa Gregory

Mysteries and Thriller

A Time of Torment by John Connolly (Charlie Parker)

In the Barren Ground by Loreth Anne White

Damaged by Lisa Scottoline

The Couple Next Door: A Novel by Shari Lapena

Surrender, New York: A Novel by Caleb Carr

Behind Closed Doors by B. A. Paris

The Dollhouse by Fiona Davis

Insidious (an FBI thriller) by Catherine Coulter

The Last Days of Night: A Novel by Graham Moore

Good as Gone by Amy Gentry

Science Fiction and Fantasy

The Hike: A Novel by Drew Magary

The Obelisk Gate (The Broken Earth) by N K Jemisin

The Last Days of New Paris by Chine Mièville

Blood of the Earth (A Soulwood Novel) by Faith Hunter

Ghost Father by Mary Robinette

The Gentleman: A Novel by Forrest Leo

Invasive: A Novel by Chuck Wendig

The Dragon Lords: Fool’s Gold by Jon Hollins

Machinations by Hayley Stone

Zen 12 by Kerri Hawkins

Underground Airlines by Ben H. Winters – Book

Ben H. Winters captured my heart and broke it when he wrote The Last Policeman trilogy. I’m not sure how he did that but in my review of World of Trouble I put it down to the magic of good writing. Mr. Winters writes science-fiction with an apocalyptic edge. His newest offering, Underground Airlines, is in the same vein. One of the best reasons to write science fiction is that it allows you to include lots of social commentary without being pedantic. Instead you get to exercise your most flighty imaginings and then ground them in our present day human dilemmas.

Winters imagines that America never actually fought the Civil War to free the slaves. He proposes a parallel America where a compromise ended the war before it began. In this compromise, four US states were allowed to keep their slaves and to continue to use them in a variety of industries. These industries conduct their business in secure compounds surrounded with electrified fences and guards and security cameras. In the North, above and around these four Southern states, there are many free black folks, who are not as free as you would like them to be (sound familiar?). Since Northern officials assume that any one of them could be a runaway from a Southern business plantation they are subject to random stops. Their paperwork must be in order and with them at all times. Many free folks live in the poorest parts of the largest cities in areas that are all known by the same name, Freedman Towns. In these days many years after the compromise was made law the only thriving economies are the Four Slave States.

Jim Dirkson (not his real name), a black man who was once a slave, has been caught and turned into a bounty hunter. A chip implanted by the US Marshals insures that he can be forced to catch runaway slaves and return them to the “plantations” that own them. He has learned to appreciate the small pleasures that come with his very limited freedom and to tuck away the nagging of his conscience, which makes sense considering that he has no choice at all about what he must do. He is in Indianapolis on an ordinary case to catch a runaway named Jackdaw. However, on closer examination of Jackdaw’s file the case appears to be anything but ordinary. Martha, a young white woman with a mixed race child has her own reasons for joining Jim to solve the mystery of Jackdaw.

This may be a parallel America experiencing a divergent future; the fact is, though, that this slave-holding America, sadly, has much in common with our version of America which has supposedly chosen to abolish slavery and in which all men (and women) should be equal. We know that we have doled out freedom to Americans of African Descent quite grudgingly. Winters hits us with an alternate reality that (almost) might as well be our actual reality. Will any amount of excoriation and guilt teach us to look for ways to tackle the issues in our inner cities that function as race and poverty traps? Will we finally find ways to get people the things they need to live productive lives which promise a comfortable future? You won’t find the answer in Underground Airlines, but you will find that an exaggeration of our actual social conditions might get you thinking.

What was different about the escape of Jackdaw? Why was his folder so different from the others that Jim had been assigned? Where is Jackdaw now? What are the Southern States up to now? Ben H. Winters doesn’t forget to pursue his case once again, just as his Last Policeman did not give up even in the face of apocalypse. This novel did not quite break my heart the way the trilogy did, although eventually the fictional outcome could possibly be just as awful. Perhaps it is because the conditions in the America we already occupy have done the deed already. Still, I must say that I really connect with the stories that Mr. Winters has to tell.

Modern Lovers by Emma Straub – Book

Literature right now is looking at families and, just lately a surprising number of these families live in New York City. Perhaps it is because diversity has long been tolerated by sophisticated New Yorkers. Perhaps it is the desire, held in abeyance by many of us, to live in New York City for at least a while. Maybe it is because, somehow, raising a family in New York City, seems both better than raising a family elsewhere because of the pace of the city and all the cultural options that families can sample, and more problematic because it denies children more bucolic pleasures. Unless you have money it is probably quite difficult to raise a family in this particular American city. However, when you are the author of a book your fictional family can be as rich as you like and thus the whole NYC fantasy can play out. Despite the stimulating and expensive surroundings it is still possible to make points about modern life that resonate universally, so an author can have their cake and eat it too.

Modern Lovers by Emma Straub is just such a novel. We meet three people who met each other in college. They were in a band together and were quite popular at local college parties and bars. They wore gothic attire and managed to sound better than they actually were. A fourth band member, Lydia, who became very famous, died in an OD at the age of 27. Two band members, Elizabeth and Andrew married. Elizabeth is a real estate agent, Andrew, who inherited money, is a man who drifts from interest to interest. They have a son Harry, who is studying for his SAT’s. Zoe, the other band member, apparently so beautiful and lively that people are always falling in love with her, is married to Jane, a chef with her own successful restaurant. They all once shared a house in the Ditmas Park section of Brooklyn. Zoe and Jane have a daughter, Ruby, also preparing for her SAT’s. The college band is being resurrected in memory as a result of a decision that must be made.

This is a slice of life novel, although not in a strict sense since we do hear the backstory. Each couple is at a point of crisis in their relationship. Each couple must decide whether to remain together or to separate. Harry and Rudy, ditching their SAT Prep course also have things to work out both together and separately. Does it make any difference that one couple is made up of a man and woman and the other couple is made up of two women? That’s what is refreshing about this novel. We see two marriages and two families, but the difficulties and challenges each couple faces could occur in any relationship. This is lighter than you would think based on the subject matter, perhaps even a bit superficial, and perhaps the ending is a bit abrupt with too little detail about the outcomes for each character, but this is still an enjoyable book with engaging characters.

Sarong Party Girls by Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan – Book

When I checked out what books were being published this summer I came across this novel, Sarong Party Girls by Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan. I wasn’t sure if it would be worth reading or not but the description said that the author had written in Singlish, a dialect of English used in Singapore and that this was a dialect that in no way would affect my ability to read and understand this story. I am a language and word lover so that was all I needed to get me to give the book a try. I was afraid it would be some fluffy chick lit, but like the chick lit I have read, it contains deeper thoughts and redeeming qualities.

On the surface the narrator, Jazeline (Jazzy) and her friends, Imo, Fann and Sher seem quite superficial. They have been girls, like many girls in America, who go to work all week and then head out clubbing on the weekends. They are modern girls so they drink a lot, dance a lot, and they sleep around a bit. The dialect they speak in uses many references we think of as sexual and this fact alone means that this book will not suit all readers. In truth, there is no subtlety to be found in the Singapore bar scene that the Sarong Party Girls move in, which caters to every taste that men, if allowed, will indulge in, so I caution you again not to read this novel if you don’t want to learn about their world.

The story line reminds me, however, of an old American movie with the title How to Marry a Millionaire except these girls are already sexually active and they want to marry white guys (ang mohs). Still, like the women in the movie, it is easy to like Jazeline, and to wish her well despite the rather materialistic project she is currently pursuing. Every once in a while Jazzy shows some real insight into certain realities about the treatment of women in modern Singapore (and elsewhere) by men, especially obvious if you go clubbing every weekend in a bar scene where wealthy men like to keep an entourage of young pretty women around them while they party.

The author, Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan, manages to stay in dialect, using the hip cadences of Singlish almost all of the time. The dialect thins out a bit when Jazzy/Cheryl shares with us her insights into things she is starting to be critical of in relation to the male-female dynamic as she begins to think about finding a partner for life, rather than just living to enjoy the weekends. She is getting too old for the clubs and she is feeling pressured to find her ang moh right now.

Here’s Jazzy/Cheryl in almost full Singlish mode:

“Aiyoh—mabuk already?” Charlie said, blinking at us one time while she pulled out her cigs from her handbag and threw them on the table. This woman was really damn action! Her eyes are quite big and pretty, so she knows that when she acts drama a bit with them, men confirm will steam when they see it. Some more she always outlines her eyes with thick thick black black pencil, so it makes them look bigger and darker, a bit like those chio Bollywood actresses. This type of move – yes is quite obvious drama, but that night, I thought to myself, Jazzy, better take notes. If you can pull this off well, it can be quite useful.”

Here’s Jazzy/Cheryl losing some Singlish as she makes a deeper point:

“The truth is, even if I felt like I could speak honestly, I didn’t know how to explain everything – or anything, really. How to tell him about a society where girls grow up watching their fathers have mistresses and second families on the side? Or one in which you find out one day that it is your mother who is the concubine and that you are the second family? A society that makes you say, when you are twelve or seventeen, ‘No matter what, when I grow up, I am never going to be the woman that tolerates that!’ But then you actually grow up and you look around, and the men who are all around you, the boys you grew up with, no matter how sweet or kind or promising they were, that somehow they have turned into men that all our fathers were and still are.”

I enjoyed this novel even more than I thought I would because it is even more like that old movie How to Marry a Millionaire than you might think. Movies of that classic film era generally contained a message, a practical moral message that passed on some wisdom from the elders in a form that was palatable to a younger generation. I did not really expect to find this in Sarong Party Girls, but it is there, along with a lot of shocking descriptions of what “fun” is like in Singapore, and it made the book worth more. It made it as Jazzy would say, quite shiok — and it is quite feminist also, without leaving men out.

The Woman Who Walked in Sunshine by Alexander McCall Smith – Book

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Alexander McCall Smith has been writing The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series of books for more than a decade and I love them all. These stores remind me that there is still sweetness in this chaotic and sometimes wicked world of ours. Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi Radiphuti rarely have dangerous crimes to untangle. They are often called upon to clear up domestic difficulties, misunderstandings, or familial treacheries. Mma Ramotswe and her cohort (although somewhat eccentric) generally solve these delicate situations and sometimes set other things straight along the way.

In this current novel, The Woman Who Walked in Sunshine, Mma Makutsi forces Mma Ramotswe to take a vacation. When a case comes in and when it seems to have been placed in the lap of the perhaps-too-softhearted part-time pinch hitter Rra Polopetsi, Mma Ramotswe almost puts her friendship with Mma Makutsi in jeopardy. She proves that she is not good at vacationing. But her vacation gives her time to think some very good thoughts that remind her about her blessings:

“She gazed at her husband, Being loved and admired by a man like that – and she knew this man, this mechanic, this fixer of machines with their broken hearts, did indeed love and admire her – was like walking in sunshine; it gave the same feeling of warmth and pleasure to bask in the love of one who has promised it, publicly at a wedding ceremony, and who is constant in his promise that such love will be given for the rest of his days. What more could any woman ask? None of us, she thought, not one single one of us, could ask for anything more than that.”

Perhaps we don’t all agree with this sentiment and we might be inclined to want this and still want more, however, the emotion of this expression of marital love gives us hope that goodness will win out over evil and that we still inhabit a moral universe.

Even though this is the sixteenth novel in the series I don’t think I will ever tire of visiting my fictional friends in Gaborone, Botswana.

Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler – Book

While it is fun to imagine writing a modern version of The Taming of the Shrew, there are some cultural differences between the 21^st century and the 18^th century that offer challenges to an author that may be insurmountable. Not the least is Shakespeare’s title. The actual word, shrew, must have been invented by men. Even Shakespeare’s female contemporaries when speaking among themselves most likely expressed anger at the term or, possibly a tolerant sort of humor (rolled eyeballs) provided the males in their lives were not actually abusive. In our times men in Western cultures who call women shrews had better be ready for some serious pushback.

We see the humor in the situation though – a woman with a sharp tongue is softened by love for a man who uses his wits to defuse her opposition and we believe he will offer her the respect and affection she needs to take off her armor. Since even someone who seems like a scold deserves love, a happy ending is satisfying and offers hope. Kate, however, is not quite enough of a scold in Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler to have the same impact as Shakespeare’s Kate.

Anne Tyler may have had the idea to do this modern novel based on Shakespeare’s play in the back of her mind for many years. It is not a bad read, but not, I think, as strong as most of Tyler’s other novels. It lacks detail and it is not as witty as the acid give and take of the original. The novel seems more like a writer’s outline than a fully fleshed out offering. In this case Vinegar Girl, although interesting conceptually is a bit lacking in the execution. Of course Shakespeare is formidable writer to take on. If you don’t make your expectations impossibly high, you will enjoy the story. Anne Tyler still has skills that have been polished by a long career as a bestselling author.

Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World by Adam Grant – Book

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How often have you wondered what traits and habits turn someone into “an original” – someone who succeeds in some way that makes them stand out, or even just someone who pursues their own interests without being concerned about what is considered as “normal”, or “cool”? How often have you wondered if you might be an “original” if you only did not have to work? This nonfiction offering, Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World by Adam Grant, attempts to study individuals or businesses that cultivate new ground either successfully or not. There is, quite logically, an attempt to create a matrix of characteristics which might help you analyze whether or not you might be an original, and traits which might explode some myths about people we respect as originals. He includes examples from current culture to back up his points.

Originals may not have the traits you would expect them to have. For example, the author tells us, originals are often procrastinators who put off delivering their final product until the last minute, which gives them time for late developments. They do not accept failure but they often fail many times before they find an idea that works. Grant tells about the ups and downs of the Warby-Parker site creators of the online eye glass site. People thought buying eyeglasses online would never fly but this site is now quite successful. The authors tells us that these originals and, in fact, most of these risk-takers often do not give up their day jobs. It seems that leaping in one aspect of your life while maintaining stability in others areas seems to be the rule rather than the exception.

The author goes through many studies that have been conducted by business experts trying to discover what makes businesses succeed or fail. The Segway and the Polaroid camera are both examples of business products that lost ground because the creators did not want dissenters and hired only admirers who could not break the “bubble” that would have allowed the business to respond flexibly to cultural trends or be aware of market trends that should have been heeded.

I don’t know how exhaustive our knowledge of “originals” is as a result of what this author shares with us. Any attempt to quantify complex and many-faceted intangibles; to produce a list of causes that will produce a desired effect in order to bring about such a non-concrete outcome, is bound to be oversimplified. Adam Grant does not actually give us a list of methodologies to become originals, rather he attempts to explode the myths we already have about what conditions it takes to be such an inventor, creator, prime mover. However there is plenty of encouragement In Grant’s book for people who think that all Originals are uniformly productive and consistently confident. It is also interesting to see what areas are the focus of those who study businesses.

You can find my reviews at Nancy Brisson at http://goodreads.com/

The Excellent Lombards by Jane Hamilton – Book

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In The Excellent Lombards Jane Hamilton is doing a Jane Smiley-style farm family story for us. Jane Smiley hasn’t always write about the same farm but she usually writes about a similar era, the era when family farms are no longer profitable, or the children don’t want to continue being farmers, or the suburbs crowd out the farms as developers convince farmer after farmer to sell off parcels of land for housing developments or malls or a Walmart Superstore, a Seven-Eleven. There are always a few farmers who are not ready to sell, who cannot imagine any other way of life or who have a child (in this case, a daughter, Francie) who is in love with the family land and the family business. Jane Hamilton gives us such a tale in her new novel.

There are two brothers, the Lombard brothers, who live on the family land with its 3 houses, 3 barns, four hundred acres of forest, sheep pastures and the prize, the apple orchard. This orchard and the surrounding land has been in the family for four generations. In this generation Sherwood and Dolly Lombard occupy the main house with their two children, Adam and Amanda. Mary Hill, an adopted cousin lives upstairs in the big old farmhouse. Sherwood is not a true farmer, he invents things. Adam and Amanda are being groomed for college. They do not like the outdoors and are unlikely to want to run an orchard.

On the other side of the road Francie lives with her Mom and Dad, Jim and Nellie Lombard and Francie’s brother William. Francie is the narrator. We hear her voice through several years as she changes from child to teenager but the book is not childish. In this generation Francie is the Lombard who loves the farm, cannot imagine any other life and is thrown for a loop whenever she glimpses what the probable fate of the orchard and the estate and the lifestyle will be. Does it still matter in modern times that Francie is a girl? You will have to see for yourself what you think about this.

What I always loved about Jane Smiley was the way she immersed us in a farm family, and we experienced the tortuous inheritance decisions, the romance of a life lived close to nature on owned land, the anxieties of the economics of farm families, so dependent on uncontrollable variables like weather and world events and markets. Jane Hamilton brings to life these same elements that have eventually led to fewer and fewer family farms in America. We have all watched farms disappear from the near hinterlands around our cities. We all see the poor Canada geese trying to conduct their natural lives on tiny manicured wetlands near car dealerships. We have watched them cross eight lane highways with their ducklings – well at least I have. Every day I ride on a road that ran through farmland and now runs through senior housing.

Francis never says this but we can see that she worries. As much as she loves the farm she sees that she would have to learn the things that May Hill knows and she does not want to become May Hill. May Hill is a genius when it comes to fixing farm equipment but she is also a rather scary recluse. Francie says this about May Hill, “She did not like anyone – she did not want to see you on the path.”

Jane Hamilton and The Excellent Lombards made me long to inherit an orchard, at least before the realities began to outweigh the romanticism, but she, like Jane Smiley, made me wish that family farms had never become too culturally irrelevant to survive, or too labor-intensive for modern sensibilities and too lacking in economic stability to be attractive. I fall for this sort of farm tale every time. It is always the same, like a familiar litany, but different enough to captivate me, like an old photograph that gives me such enjoyable nostalgia that I don’t mind seeing it again and again. It would be sad if this way of life did not leave a trace, but as long as people read the books about farming written by these two women, it will live on.

June-July, 2016 Book List

I usually publish my book lists around the 15^th of each month, but my site was under construction and it scattered my wits and interrupted my schedule, so here is the list for both June and July and there are treasures in here and there is plenty of politics, mostly of the Conservative variety. I did not have the usual bulletins from Publishers Weekly, but the New York Times Book Review started arriving like clockwork. Is this like that saying that when one door closes another one opens? Of course, these lists produce both anticipation and anxiety. Which book/s will I love this time? How will I ever, ever get to all of these books? That’s life, full of the paradoxes.

Amazon

Literature and Fiction

Here Comes the Sun: A Novel by Nicole Dennis-Benn

Pond by Claire Louise Bennett

Invincible Summer by Alice Adams

The Heavenly Table: A Novel by Donald Ray Pollock

Pierced by the Sun by Laura Esquivel

As Good As Gone: A Novel by Larry Watson

Siracusa by Delia Ephron

Ninety-Nine Stories of God by Joy Williams

Night of the Animals: A Novel by Bill Broun

Sarong Party Girls: A Novel by Cheryl Lu-lien Tan

The Singles Game by Lauren Weisberger

Hot New Releases

Crisis of Character: A White House Service Office Discloses His Firsthand Experience with Hillary, Bill, and How They Operate by Gary J. Byrne

Wake up America: the Nine Virtues that Made Our Nation Great – and Why We Need Them More Than Ever by Eric Bolling

The Girls: A Novel by Emma Cline

The Black Widow by Daniel Silva

Gravity Falls: Journal 5 by Alex Hirsch, Rob Renzetti

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family by J. D. Vance

White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg

If You Can Keep It: The Forgotten Promise of American Liberty by Eric Metaxas

The Intimidation Game: How the Left is Silencing Free Speech by Kimberly Strassel

Here’s to Us by Elin Hilderbrand

The Gilded Years: A Novel by Karin Tanabe

Mystery, Thriller, Suspense

I Am No One: A Novel by Patrick Flanery

All is Not Forgotten: A Novel by Wendy Walker

The Castle of Kings by Oliver Potzch

Wolf Lake: A Novel by John Verdon

How to Set a Fire and Why: A Novel by Jesse Ball

The Heavenly Table: A Novel by Donald Ray Pollock

The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware

The Last One: A Novel by Alexandra Olivia

The Black Widow by Daniel Silva

Dark Matter: A Novel by Blake Crouch

Independent Booksellers

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen

The Rocks by Peter Nichols

The Girls by Emma Cline

Before the Fall by Noah Hawley

Barkskins by Annie Proulx

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

Modern Lovers by Emma Straub

Here’s to Us by Elin Hilderbrand

Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur

Under the Harrow by Flynn Berry

Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley

The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes

The Course of Love by Alain de Botton

Murder on the Quai by Cara Black

Charcoal Joe by Walter Mosley

Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman

The After Party by Anton Di Sclafini

Smoke by Dan Vyleta

New York Times Book Review

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

Smoke by Dan Vyleta

The Book of Esther by Emily Barton (YA)

The Sport of Kings by C. E. Morgan

Elizabeth: The Forgotten Years by John Guy (NF)

The New Arab Wars by Marc Lynch (NF)

Who Cooked Adam Smith’s Dinner? By Katrin Marçal (NF)

The Money Cult by Chris Lehmann (NF)

A Million Windows by James McNamara

Barkskins by Annie Proulx

The Fractured Republic: Renewing America’s Social Contract in the Age of Individualism

by Yuval Leven (NF)

White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide by Carol Anderson (NF)

Spiral: Trapped in the Forever War by Mark Danner (NF)

Jackson, 1964: And Other Dispatches from Fifty Years of Reporting on Race in America by Calvin Trillin (NF)

White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg (NF)

Money Changes Everything: How Finance Made Civilization Possible by William N. Goetzmann (NF)

Native Believer by Ali Eteraz

1^st novels

The Atomic Weight of Love by Elizabeth Church (don’t know if this is a great book, but it is a great title)

Happy Family by Tracy Barone

The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt by Tracy Farr

Stork Mountain by Miroslav Penkov

Crime Fiction

Charcoal Joe by Walter Mosley

Willnot by James Sallis

Murder on the Quai by Cara Black

Burn What Will Burn by C B McKenzie

The Sudden Appearance of Hope by Claire North

Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter

The Extra by A B Yehoshua

The Drowned Detective by Neil Jordon

Born on Tuesday by Elnathan John

I Almost Forgot About You by Terry McMillian

The Sun in Your Eyes by Deborah Shapiro+