I set a course to read all the Bosch books by Michael Connelly this summer. Well, I didn’t quite make it before fall set in but, except for the newest book, which is not available yet, I finished all of them. I did not review each book as I finished it because I decided to classify them as recreational reading, but characters like Bosch deserve a few words. Harry or Hieronymus Bosch is a police detective in the homicide division when Connelly’s series begins. He has a sad past as he was born to a single mother who did not share the name of his father with him. They lived in run-down apartments in poor neighborhoods and his mother sometimes prostituted herself to earn enough money to live. She was found murdered in an alley; a victim of a crime Bosch eventually solves. Bosch is sent to a home for orphaned children, a place that locked defiant children away in a dark cubbyhole in a time when there were no laws about such abuse. Bosch was a defiant child and a frequent runaway.
But Bosch developed an anathema to the evil side of people, people whose acts create the dark corners of our society, its dark hidden alleys, and the twisted actions of those who are damaged. So, despite Bosch’s obvious issues with authority and his contempt for the politics of policing he is a detective who doesn’t quit. He breaks rules only if they prevent him from pursuing a case using rules he deems trivial. If his current LT (Lieutenant) happens to be a stickler for rules or in cahoots with the big wigs on the tenth floor, he is likely to be suspended once he solves a case (sometimes even before he solves the case). In some of the Bosch books he is a private detective. In later books he works to solve cold cases or volunteers at the San Fernando police department, gets hired there, gets suspended from there and finally retires for good, but still mentors Renee Ballard, a smart young policewoman.
Bosch’s house, where he spends far too little time, is an oasis above the city, a legacy of a movie that was made about a case he solved. It sits high above the city cantilevered out over scrubland and coyotes with a wall of windows and outside an open deck with a convenient railing. Jazz music fills the space which is somewhat minimalist and rather shipshape as if floating in air is like floating at sea. It does have three bedrooms however, which is fortunate when Bosch discovers that he has a daughter from his only wife and only love, the former FBI agent and very successful gambler, Eleanor Wish. Wish and Bosch do not work as partners but their daughter, Maddie, is a great addition to the series. She plays a more prominent role in the TV series, but she and Harry have an easy and positive relationship even though or perhaps because Harry is hardly ever home. Maddie understands what drives her father and she finds herself driven by the same desire to rid the world of evil doers. She humanizes Harry.
Michael Connelly creates a thinking detective, not an action hero, and he takes us through cases that come out of the news of the moment. This gives his books a historical perspective on what different eras have brought to life in Los Angeles and to the world.
I thoroughly enjoyed my summer of Bosch. It offered a nice break from the ever more chaotic politics of America and everywhere else. To go along as a hero follows the trail of a criminal murderer or rapist, an arsonist who burned up children to cover a crime, or people who committed ‘all the sins that flesh is heir to’, to use a “murder book” to catch a criminal, brought a sense of balance back into my life. Seeing wrongs righted offers satisfaction even if the heroics are fictional. I also find, whenever I read a book set in LA, that we are given lots of highway routes in case we ever want to follow in Bosch’s footsteps. Don’t bring a gun; bring some Charles Mingus and some good fast food. You won’t need a GPS. Just take the 405 to Mulholland
From an SNL skit:
Yes, Californians yak about traffic the same way Oregonians talk about the weather, effortlessly working it into conversations.
A hilarious example from jealous boyfriend Fred Armisen during Saturday’s SNL skit “The Californians”:
“I think you should go home now, Devin! Get back on San Vincente. Take it to the 10. Switch over to 405 North and let it dump you into Mulholland…where you belong.”
Thank you, Michael Connelly. You provided a great bridge to take me out of COVID isolation and sorrow, back to fighting the good fight to save democracy and enjoying life.
Book lists around Christmas and the New Year are not always typical in terms of content with regard to book lists from the rest of the year. This month you should look for the book lists that offer up the Best Books of 2019. Every site that reviews books usually has such a list. When you look over the offerings from the NYT you will find the suggestions at the beginning of December were quite lengthy. Since books make wonderful gifts for many readers the list is rounded out with appealing suggestions for books as presents. It is now past Christmas but it’s never to late to give a great book to a book lover and you will find some books for art lovers and those who love the dance world
.Amazon
Literature and Fiction
The Long Petal of the Sea: A Novel by Isabel Allende
Small Days and Nights: A Novel by Tishani Doshi
Show Them a Good Time by Nicole Flattery
Dear Edward: A Novel by Ann Napolitano
American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
Little Gods: A Novel by Meng Jin
Topics of Conversation: A Novel by Miranda Popkey
The Black Cathedral: A Novel by Marcial Gala and Anna Kushner
Processed Cheese: A Novel by Stephen Wright
Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick by Zora Neale Hurston
Mysteries and Thrillers
The Vanishing (Fogg Lake) by Jayne Ann Krantz
The Tenant by Katrine Engberg
The Missing American (An Emma Djan Investigation) by Kwei Quartey
The Better Liar by Tanen Jones
No Fixed Lines (22) (A Kate Shugak Investigation) by Dana Stabenow
Lost Hills by Lee Goldberg
The Rabbit Hunter by Lars Kepler
House on Fire: A Novel by Joseph Finder
The Wife and the Widow by Christian White
First Cut: A Novel by Judy Melinek, MD, TJ Mitchell
Biographies and Memoirs
Consider This: Moments in My Writing Life after Which Everything was Different by Chuck Palahniuk
Race of Aces: WW II’s Elite Airmen and the Epic Battle to Become Masters of the Sky by John R. Bruning
Father of Lions: One Man’s Remarkable Quest to Save the Mosul Zoo by Louise Callaghan
Will: A Memoir by Will Self
Imperfect Union: How Jessie and John Fremont Mapped the West, Invented Celebrity, and Helped Cause the Civil War by Steven Inskeep
Building a Life Worth Living: A Memoir by Marsha M Linehan
We Will Rise: A True Story of Tragedy and Resurrection in the American Heartland by Steve Beaven
Uncanny Valley: A Memoir by Anna Wiener
The Magical Language of Others: A Memoir by E J Koh
Nonfiction
Hill Women: Finding a Family and a Way Forward in the Appalachian Mountains by Cassidy Chambers
Leadership Strategy and Tactics: Field Manual Jocko Willink
Tiny Habits: The Small Changes that Change Everything by B J Fogg, PhD
The Third Rainbow: The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia by Emma Copley Eisenberg
The Passion Economy: The New Rules for Thriving in the Twenty-first Century by Peggy Orenstein
Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope by Nicholas Kristof, Sheryl Wu Dunn
Why We Can’t Sleep: Women’s New Midlife by Ada Calhoun
Humble Pi: When Math Goes Wrong in the Real World by Matt Parker
History
999: The Extraordinary Young Women of the First Official Jewish Transport to Auschwitz by Heather Dune Macadam and Caroline Moorehead
Black Wave: Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Forty-Year Rivalry that Unraveled Culture, Religion, and a Collective Memory in the Middle East by Kim Grattas
Overground Railroad: The Green Book and Roots of Black Travel in America by Candacy Taylor
Wilmington’s Lies: The Murderous Coup of 1898 by David Zucchino
Information Hunters: When Librarians, Soldiers, and Spies Banded Together in World War II Europe by Kathy Peiss
Mengele: Unmasking the “Angel of Death” by David G Marwell
Transcendence: How Humans Evolved through Fire, Language, Beauty, and Time by Gaia Vince
Science Fiction
The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez
The Secret Chapter (The Invisible Library Novel) by Genevieve Cogman
NYT Book Update
12/9/2019
Fiction
Mary Toft: or The Rabbit Queen by Dexter Palmer
The Second Sleep by Robert Harris
10 Best Crime Books of 2019
The Bird Boys by Lisa Landlin
The Chestnut Man by Soren Sviestrup
Conviction by Denise Mina
The Good Detective by John McCain
Heaven My Home by Attica Locke
The Never Game by James Deaver
The New Iberia Blues by James Lee Burke
The Night Fire by Michael Connelly
The Old Success by Martha Grimes
Sarah Jane by James Sallis
Nonfiction
Still Here by Alexander Jacobs (Bio of Elaine Stritch)
Listening for America by Rob Kapilow
Life Isn’t Everything: Mike Nichols, as Remembered by 150 of His Closest Friends by Ash Carter and Sam Kashner
A Month in Siena by Hisham Matar (Art)
Art Books
Climbing Rock By Francois Lebeau
Silent Kingdom by Christian Vizl
Light Break – Photos of Ray DeCarava
The Sound I Saw – Photos of Ray Cavara (Harlem Photographer
Nonfiction
Novel Houses by Christina Hardyment
The Seine: The River that Made Paris by Elaine Sciolino
Art Books
The Lost Books of Jane Austen by Janine Barchas
Nonfiction
The Europeans by Orlando Figes
The Life and Loves of E. Nesbit by Eleanor Fitzsimons
It’s Gary Shandling’s Book edited by Judd Apatow
Irving Berlin by James Kaplan
Texas Flood by Alan Paul and Andy Aledort (Stevie Rae Vaughn)
A Pilgrimage to Eternity by Timothy Egan
I Used to Be Charming: The Rest of Eve Babitz, Ed. By Sara J Kramer
Vanity Fair’s Women on Women, Ed. By Radhika Jones with David Friend
Parisian Lives by Deirdre Bair (Beckett and Beauvoir)
Disney’s Island by Richard Snow
Art Book
Rihanna (Memoir)
Nonfiction
Infused: Adventures in Tea by Henrietta Lovell
Life in a Cold Climate by Laura Thompson (Nancy Mitford)
Janis: Her Life and Music by Holly George-Warren
Horror Stories by Liz Phair
Out Loud by Mark Morris
Dance
Love, Icebox: Letters from John Cage to Merce Cunningham by Laura Kuhn
Ballerina Project by Dane Shitogi
The Style of Movement: Fashion and Dance by Ken Brower and Deborah Ory
12/13/2019
Fiction
On Swift Horses by Shannon Pufahl
Find Me by André Aciman
The Shortlist
Walking on the Ceiling: A Novel by Aysegul Savas
The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna by Juliet Grimes (family saga)
How We Disappeared by Jing-Jing Lee
Nonfiction
The Man Who Solved the Market by George Zuckerman
Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister by Jung Chang
Battling Bella by Leandra Ruth Zarnow (Bella Abzug)
Return to the Reich by Eric Lichtblau
The Shadow of Vesuvius by Daisy Dunn (Bio of Pliny the Elder and Pliny the Younger)
12/20/2019
Crime
Just Watch Me by Jeff Lindsay
A Madness of Sunshine by Nalini Singh
Shatter the Night by Emily Littlejohn
Bryant and May: The Lonely Hour by Christopher Towles
Fiction
The Sacrament by Olaf Olafson
They Will Drown in their Mother’s Tears by Johannes Anyuru
Dead Astronauts by Jeff VanderMeeks
Nietzsche and the Burbs by Lars Iyer
The Mutations by Jorge Comensal
Nonfiction
97,196 Words by Emmanuel Carere (essays)
User Friendly by Cliff Kuang and Robert Fabricant
Busted in New York by Darryl Pinckney (essays)
Essays One by Lydia Davis
They Don’t Represent Us by Lawrence Lessig
The Great Democracy by Ganesh Sitaraman
Of Morsels and Marvels by Maryse Condé
Family Papers: A Sephardic Journey through the Twentieth Century by Sarah Abrevaya Stein
The Cartiers: The Untold Story Behind the Jewelry Empire by Francesca Carter Brickell
12/27/2019
Nonfiction
The Selected Letters of Ralph Ellison, Ed by John F Callahan and Marc C Conner
Genius and Anxiety by Norman Lebrecht
The Confounding Island by Orlando Patterson
In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado (Memoir)
The Depositions by Thomas Lynch
One Long River of Song by Brian Doyle
Great Society: A New History by Amity Shlaes
1/2/2020
Crime
A Small Town by Thomas Perry
Naked Came the Florida Man by Tim Dorsey
The Playground by Jane Shemilt
Fiction
The Heap by Sean Adams
10 Minutes, 38 Seconds, in this Strange World by Elif Shafak
The Corner that Held Them by Sylvia Townsend Warner
Medieval Bodies by Jack Hartnell
The Revisionaries by A R Moxon
The Heart is a Full-Wild Beast by John L’Heureux
The Bishop’s Bedroom by Piero Chiara
Science Fiction
Queen of the Conquered by Kacen Callender
Homesick by Nino Cipri (Short stories)
Nonfiction
Uncanny Valley By Anna Wiener (Memoir)
Trump and His Generals by Peter Bergen
A Bookshop in Berlin by Francoise Frenkel
The Shortlist
The Sea Journals: Seafarers Sketchbooks by Huw Lewis-Jones
An Underground Guide to Sewers: Or: Down, Through and Out in Paris, London, New York &c by Stephen Halliday
Expeditions Unpacked: What Great Explorers Took Into the Unknown by Ed Stafford
New and Noteworthy
Crossing the Rubicon: Caesar’s Decision and the Fate of Rome by Luca Fezzi
Yellow Earth by John Sayles
The American People, Volume 2: The Brutality of Fact by Larry Kramer
Once More to the Rodeo: A Memoir by Calvin Hennick
Publisher’s Weekly
12/13/2019
I’ve Seen the End of You: A Neurosurgeon’s Look at Faith, Doubt, and the Things We Think We Know by W. Lee Warren, MD – NF
You Were There Too by Colleen Oakley – F
Naked Came the Florida Man by Tim Dorsey – F
Cesare by Jerome Charyn – F
One of Us is Next by Karen M McManus – F
A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy by Jane McAlevey – NF
Waltz into Darkness by Cornell Woolrich – F
The Art of Dying by Ambrose Parry – F
Kill Reply All: A Modern Guide to Online Etiquette by Victoria Turk – NF
The Black Cathedral by Marcial Gala – F
Consider This: Moments in My Writing Life After Which Everything was Different by Chuck Palahniuk – Memoirs
All The Days Past by Mildred D. Taylor – F
Spitfire: A Livy Nash Mystery by M. L. Huie – F
Wilmington’s Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy by David Zucchino – NF
A Long Time Comin’ by Robin W. Pearson – F
That’s all of the PW Tip sheets that I found in my files this month. You can look for the online.
I decided not to put together a book list for December, although I may do that later when life slows down. But here are links to lists of the best books of 2019.
I have a recurring dream. I am escorted to a well-appointed studio apartment with all the new books for the month piled on every available surface. I am given a key, a valet robot who can cook and clean, and an AI virtual presence to handle my business and social interactions. I can read as long as I like but I can’t take any books out of the apartment and if I leave I can’t come back in. Am I obsessed? Actually this is a dream that could turn into a nightmare. However if you could take books out into the world with you and if you could come and go as you please, it might just be perfect.
Amazon
Literature and Fiction
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern F*
This is Pleasure: A Story by Mary Gaitskill F
On Swift Horses: A Novel by Shannon Pufahl F
Girl, Woman, other: A Novel by Berndine Evaristo F*
The Innocents: A Novel by Michael Crummay F
Find Me: A Novel by André Aciman F
The Revisioners: A Novel by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton F
The Confession Club: A Novel (Mason) by Elizabeth Berg F*
Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson F*
Mary Toft: or The Rabbit Queen: A Novel by Dexter Pullman F*
Mysteries and Thrillers
The Lost Causes of Beale Creek: A Novel by Rhett McLaughlin, Link Neal
Broken Glass (A Nik Pohl Thriller) by Alexander Hartung and Fiona Beaton
A Christmas Gathering by Anne Perry
Nothing More Dangerous by Allen Eskens
The Family Upstairs: A Novel by Lisa Jewell
Kiss the Girls and Make Them Cry: A Novel by Mary Higgins Clark
The Siberian Dilemma 9 (The Arkady Renko Novels) by Martin Cruz Smith
An Equal Justice (David Adams) by Chad Zunker
A Minute to Midnight by David Baldacci
36 Righteous Men by Steven Pressfield
Nonfiction
Vicksburg: Grant’s Campaign that Broke the Confederacy by Donald L Miller
Valley Forge by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin
Acid for the Children: A Memoir by Flea, Patti Smith *
When the Earth Had Two Moons: Cannibal Planets, Icy Giants, Dirty Comets, Dreadful Orbits, and the Origins of the Night Sky by Erik Asphang
Our Wild Calling: How Connecting with Animals can Transform our Lives and Save Theirs by Richard Louv
The Beautiful Ones by Prince
Hymns of the Republic: The Story of the Final Years of the American Civil War by S. C. Gwynne
Checkpoint Charlie: The Cold War, the Berlin Wall and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth by Iain McGregor *
Canyon Dreams: A Basketball Season on the Navajo Nation by Michael Powell
The Great Pretender – The Undercover Mission that Changed our Understanding of Madness by Susannah Cahalan *
The Witches Are Coming by Lindy West
User Unfriendly: How the Hidden Rules of Design are Changing the Way We Live, Work and Play by Cliff Kuang with Robert Fabricant
Why Are We Yelling: The Art of Productive Disagreement by Buster Benson
Don’t Be Evil: How Big Tech Betrayed its Founding Principles – and all of us by Rana Foroohar
Volume Central: Hearing in a Deafening World by David Owen.
Science Fiction and Fantasy
The Deep by Rivers Solomon and Daveed Diggs
The Pursuit of William Abbey by Claire North
Call Down the Hawk (The Dreamer Trilogy, Bk. 1 by Maggie Stiefvater
Star Wars – Resistance Reborn: The Rise of Skywalker by Rebecca Roanhorse
Made Things by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Fate of the Fallen (Shroud of Prophecy) by Kel Kade
New York Times Book Update
Oct. 4 th
The Topeka School by Ben Lerner F
Sarah Jane by James Sallis – Crime
Bloody Genius by John Sanford – Crime
Gallows Court by Martin Edwards – Crime
The Bird Boys by Lisa Sandlin – Crime
Cantoras by Carolina De Robertis F
Akin by Emma Donoghue *
Growing Things by Paul Tremblay – Short stories – Horror
The Cabin at the End of the Lane by Paul Tremblay – Horror
Sealed by Naomi Booth – Horror
Nonfiction
Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell
A State at Any Cost: The Life of David Ben-Gurion by Tom Segev
What was Liberalism? The Past, Present, and Promise of a Noble Idea by James Traub
The Stakes – 2020 and the Survival of American Democracy by Robert Kuttner
The Accusation by Edward Berenson
Scarred by Sarah Edmondson – Nxivm
Super Pumped by Mike Isaac (Uber)
The Anarchy by William Dalrymple
Oct. 11 th
Fiction
The Shadow King by Namwali Serpell
The Sweetest Fruits by Moneque Truong
A Pure Heart by Rajia Hassib
The World that We Knew by Alice Hoffman
A Man in Love by Martin Walser (Göethe)
The Shortlist – Love and War in European Fiction
Country by Michael Hughes
Will and Testament by Vigdis Hjorth
The Girl at the Door by Veronica Raimo
Nonfiction
Transaction Man by Nicholas Lemann
Know My Name by Chanel Miller
The Second Founding by Eric Foner
Beaten Down, Worked Up by Steven Greenhouse
Homesick by Jennifer Croft (Memoir)
Fashionopolis by Dana Thomas
We are the Weather by Jonathan Safran Foer
Syria Secret Library by Mike Thompson
A Polar Affair by Lloyd Spencer Davis (promiscuous penguins)
New York Times does Halloween but I don’t.
Nov. 1 st
The Old Success by Martha Grimes – Crime
Death in Focus by Anne Perry – Crime
Elevator Pitch by Linwood Barclay – Crime
The Quaker by Liam McIlvanney – Crime
Grand Union by Zadie Smith – Short Stories
The World Doesn’t Require You by Rion Amilcar Scott
Fiction
Olive Again by Elizabeth Strout
Girl by Edna O’Brien
Call Upon the Water by Stella Tillyard
Lampedusa by Steven Price
Nonfiction
Edison by Edmund Morris – Bio.
To Build a Better World by Condoleezza Rice and Philip Zelikow
Sontag by Benjamin Moser – Bio.
Who is an Evangelical? by Thomas S. Kidd
The Immoral Majesty by Ben Howe
The Problem with Everything by Meghan Daum
The Economist’s Hour by Binyamin Appelbaum
The Marginal Revolutionaries by Janek Wasserman
The Shortlist – 3 Memoirs by Famous Women
Inside Out by Demi Moore
Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years by Julie Andrews with Emma Walton Hamilton
Touched by the Sun: My Friendship with Jackie by Carly Simon
Publisher’s Weekly
Oct. 7 th
Salt Show by Julia Armfield
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
Ordinary Hazards: A Memoir by Nikki Grimes
Older Brother by Mahir Guven, trans. from French by Tina Kover Europa
American Radicals: How Nineteenth Century Protest Shaped the Nation by Holly Jackson
How We Fight For Our Lives: A Memoir by Saeed Jones
Passing: A Memoir of Love and Death by Michael Korda
Anti-Social: Online Extremists, Techno-Utopians, and the Hijacking of the American Conversation by Andrew Marantz
Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts by Kate Racculia
Cosmosknights: Book One by Hannah Templer
Commute: An Illustrated Memoir of Female Shame by Erin Williams
Oct. 14
Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi trans. from Arabic by Marilyn Booth (Oman) F
Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me by Adrienne Brodeur
The Body: A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson NF
Your House Will Pay by Steph Cha F – based on true case
Life Undercover: Coming of Age in the CIA by Amaryllis Fox Memoir
Music: A Subversive History by Ted Gioia History
One Hundred Autobiographies: A Memoir by David Lehman Memoir
The Adventure of the Peculiar Protocols: Adapted from the Journals of John H. Watson, MD by Nicholas Meyer F
The First Cell: And the Human Cost of Pursuing Cancer to the Last by Azra Razer NF
Salvaged by Madeleine Roux Science Fiction Thriller
It Would Be Night in Caracas by Karina Sainz Borgo trans. from Spanish by Elizabeth Bryer (Caracas, Venezuela) F
Olive Again by Elizabeth Strout
Oct. 21
All This Could Be Yours by Jami Attenberg F *
The Peanut Papers: Writers and Cartoonists on Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the Gang, and the Meaning of Life – Edited by Andrew Blauner (Essays, Poems, Cartoons) (Valentines to Charles M. Schultz)
The Night Fire by Michael Connelly F
The Deserter by Nelson DeMille and Alex DeMille Thriller *
Initiated: Memory of a Witch by Amanda Yates Memoir
Janis: Her Life and Music by Holly George-Warren Biography *
The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell Thriller
Edison by Edmund Morris Biography
The Promise by Silvina Ocampo trans. from Spanish by Suzanne Jill Levine and Jessica Powell F
The Fragility of Bodies by Sergio Olguin, trans. from Spanish by Miranda France, Bitter Lemon Crime
The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys (Franco, Madrid) F
Famous in Cedarville by Erica Wright F
Oct. 28
Blue Moon: A Jack Reacher Novel by Lee Child F
The Lives of Lucien Freud: The Restless Years, 1922-1968 by William Feaver Biography
Overview: A New Perspective of Earth by Benjamin Grant Photos
Blood: A Memoir by Allison Moorer Memoir
Shadow Network: Media, Money and the Secret Hub of the Radical Right by Anne Nelson NF*
The Factory by Hiroko Oyamada, trans from Japanese by David Boyd F
The In-Betweens: The Spiritualists, Mediums, and Legends of Camp Etna by Mira Ptacin NF
Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson (humor) F
Nov. 4
The Movie Musical! by Jeanine Bassinger NF
The History of Philosophy by A. C. Grayling NF
Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert (“a contemporary page-turning winner”) F
In the Dream House: A Memoir by Carmen Mava Machado (same sex domestic abuse) Memoir
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern F
The Book of Lost Saints by Daniel Jose Older F
The Arab of the Future 4: A Childhood in the Middle East, 1987-1992 by Riad Sattouf, trans. from Frenchy by Sam Taylor Autobiography *
The Siberian Dilemma by Martin Cruz Smith (Arkady Renko #9) by Thriller
Love Unknown: The Life and Worlds of Elizabeth Bishop by Thomas Travisano Biography and Literary Study
Here’s my October 2019 Book List compiled from the Amazon front page for books, NYT Books, and Publisher’s Weekly Tip Sheet. Fiction and political nonfiction are probably the winning categories on this list with the most contenders for our attention. If you like crime books NYT always gives good crime. And there are plenty of thrillers. I imagine myself sitting in a chair surrounded by stacks of books. As soon as I am done with one the next one is close at hand. Of course the needs of the human body must still be met but I do so reluctantly and wish for a robot to at least bring me foodstuffs to graze on. Hint: Don’t give in to a fantasy like this. Our bodies deteriorate if we sit all the time. You still need fresh air and walks in the park. This is what books read aloud for our listening pleasure are for.
Amazon
Literature and Fiction
All This Could Be Yours by Jami Attenberg *
The Man Who Saw Everything by Deborah Levy *
Frankissstein by Jeanette Winterson *
The Topeka School: A Novel by Ben Lerner *
Cilka’s Journey: A Novel by Heather Moss *
Sarah Jane by James Sallis *
Olive Again: A Novel by Elizabeth Strout
Metropolitan Stories by Christine Coulson *
Divide Me By Zero by Lara Vapnyer *
Mysteries and Thrillers
The Guardians: A Novel by John Grisham
Empire of Lies by Raymond Khoury
The Deserter: A Novel by Nelson DeMille
The Night Fire by Michael Connelly
The Butterfly Girl: A Novel by Rene Denfeld
Agent Running in the Field: A Novel by John le Carré
Ninth House by Leigh Burdugo
Blue Moon: A Jack Reacher Novel by Lee Child
Sarah Jane by James Sallis
Nonfiction
The Body: A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson
Dreams of El Dorado: A History of the American West by H. W. Brands
Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators by Ronan Farrow
The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek
The End is Always Near: Apocalyptic Moments, from Bronze Age Collapse to Nuclear Near Misses by Dan Carlin
Civilized to Death: The Price of Progress by Christopher Ryan *
On the Plain of Snakes: A Mexican Journey by Paul Theroux
Movies and Other Things by Shea Serrano, Arturo Torres
Letters from an Astrophysicist by Neil deGrasse Tyson
Running with Sherman: The Donkey with the Heart of a Hero by Christopher McDougall
Biographies and Memoirs
How We Fight for Our Lives: A Memoir by Saeed Jones
Face It by Debbie Harry
Horror Stories: A Memoir by Liz Mair
Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover and Me by Adrienne Brodeur *
Homework: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years by Julie Andrews and Emma Walton Hamilton
Me: Elton John: Official Autobiography by Elton John
Life Undercover: Coming of Age in the CIA by Amaryllis Fox
I Will Never See the World Again: The Memoir of an Imprisoned Writer by Ahmet Altan
Edison by Edmund Morris
Beautiful on the Outside: A Memoir by Adam Rippon
Things We Didn’t Talk About When I was a Girl by Jeannie Vanasco
Unfollow: A Memoir of Loving and Leaving the Westboro Baptist Church by Megan Phelps-Roper *
Science Fiction and Fantasy
Supernova Era by Cixin Liu, Joel Martinsen
The Girl With No Face: The Daoshi Chronicles by M. H. Boroson
Ormeshadow by Priya Sharma
The Grace Year by Kim Liggett
Salvaged by Madeline Roux
The Library of the Unwritten by A. J. Hackwith
Steel Craw Saga by Paul Keueger
The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz
How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse – Book One of the Thorne Chronicles by K. Eason
New York Times Book
Sept. 6
Quichotte by Salman Rushdie F – see my review on goodreads.com
Overthrow by Caleb Crain F
The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa F
If You Want to Make God Laugh by Bianca Marais F
The Warlow Experiment by Alix Nathan F
Travel Light, Move Fast by Alexandra Fuller Memoir
The Optimist’s Telescope by Bina Venkataraman NF
Audience of One by Gene Shteyngart NF
Learning from the Germans by Susan Neiman NF
Floating Coast by Bathsheba Demuth NF
Silver, Sword, and Stone by Marie Arana NF
First You Write a Sentence by Joe Moran NF
Karl Marx: Prophet of the Present by Shlomo Avineri Biography
Year of the Monkey by Patti Smith Memoir
4 Books about CIA
Black Site: The CIA in Post-9/ll World by Philip Mudd NF
The Targeter: My Life in the CIA, Hunting Terrorists and Challenging the White House by Nada Bakos with David Coburn NF
The Moscow Rules: The Secret CIA Tactics that Helped America Win the Cold War by Antonio J. Mendez and Jonna Mendez with Matt Baglio NF
Surprise, Kill, Vanish: The Secret History of CIA Paramilitary, Armies, Operators, and Assassins by Annie Jacobsen NF
All the Powers of Earth: The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. 3 by Sidney Blumenthal NF
The Nature of Life and Death: Every Body Leaves a Trace by Patricia Wiltshire Autobiography
Our Dog: Ourselves: The Story of a Singular Bond by Alexandra Horowitz NF
Defending Israel: The Story of My Relationship with My Most Challenging Client by Alan M Dershowitz NF
Editor’s Choice
Human Relationships and Other Difficulties: Essays by Mary-Kay Wilmers Essays
Faber and Faber: The Untold Story by Tony Faber NF
The Grammarians by Cathleen Schine F
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk F
Reasons to be Cheerful by Nina Stibbe F
The Lie: A Memoir of Two Marriages, Catfishing and Coming Out by William Dameron NF
And How Are You. Dr. Sacks? A Biographical Memoir of Oliver Sacks by Lawrence Weschler Biographical Memoir
Buzz, Sting, Bite: Why We Need Insects by Ann Sverchup-Thygerson, trans. by Lucy Moffatt NF
Sept. 13
The Institute by Stephen King
Crime (4)
Heaven My Home by Attica Locke F
What Rose Forgot by Nevada Barr F
Missing Person by Sarah Lotz F
Three Hours by Anders Roslund and Gorge Hellstrom, trans. by Elizabeth Clark Wessel F
We the Survivors by Tash Aw F
Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellman F
The Outlaw Ocean by Ian Urbina NF
Inconspicuous Consumption by Tatiana Schlossberg NF
The Many Lives of Michael Bloomberg by Eleanor Randolph NF
Savage Appetites by Rachel Monroe NF
Love Falls on Us by Robbie Cory-Boulet NF
A Good Provider is One Who Leaves by Jason De Parle NF
Maoism: A Global History by Julia Lovell NF *
New Dystopian Novels
The Diver’s Game by Jesse Ball F *
The Warehouse by Rob Hart F *
The Nobody People by Bob Proehl *
Sept. 20
The Testaments by Margaret Atwood F *
Dominicana by Angie Cruz F *
A Door in the Earth by Alice Waldman F
Hard Mouth by Amanda Goldblatt F
Coventry by Rachel Cusk Essays
She Said by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey NF
The Education of Brett Kavanaugh by Robin Pogrebin and Kate Kelly NF
Gender and Our Brains by Gina Rippon NF
See Jane Win by Caitlin Moscatello NF
Nobody’s Victim by Carrie Goldberg NF
Consent by Donna Freitas NF
YA Crossover
Who Put This Song On? By Morgan Parker
Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera
American Royals by Katharine McGee
The Beautiful by Renée Ahdieh
Sept. 27
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett F
Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson F
Now We Shall Be Entirely Free by Andrew Miller F
Night Boat to Tangier by Kevin Barry F
Cold Storage by David Koepp F
Bottle Grove by Daniel Handler F
How to Be An Antiracist by Ibhram X Kendi NF
The Education of an Idealist by Samantha Power NF
How the Other Half Learns by Robert Rondiscio NF
The Years that Matter Most by Paul Tough NF
The Geography of Risk by Gilbert Gaul NF
How to Fight Anti-Semitism by Bari Weiss NF
On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal by Naomi Klein NF
The Green New Deal: Why Fossil Fuel Civilization Will Collapse by 2028, and the Bold Economic Plan to Save Life On Earth by Jeremy Rifkin NF *
Oct. 4
The Topeka School by Ben Lerner F
How to Fight Anti-Semitism by Bari Weiss NF
Crime (4)
Sarah Jane by James Sallis
Bloody Genius by John Sanford
Gallows Court by Martin Edwards
The Bird Boys by Lisa Sandlin
Cantoras by Carolina DeRobertis F
Akin by Emma Donoghue F *
Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell NF
A State at Any Cost: The Life David Ben-Gurion by Tom Seger NF
What was Liberalism? The Past, Present and Promise of a Noble Idea by James Traub NF *
The Stakes: 2020 and the Survival of American Democracy by Robert Kuttner NF *
The Accusation by Edward Berenson NF
Scarred by Sarah Edmondson NF
Super Pumped by Mike Isaac NF
The Anarchy by William Dalrymple NF
Publisher’s Weekly
Sept. 6
Clear My Name by Paula Daly – Thriller
Animalia by Jean-Baptiste Del Amo, trans. from French by Frank Wynne – F
Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellman “challenging but undoubtably brilliant”, 750 Pages, Short-listed for Man Booker Prize F *
The Institute by Stephen King F *
Transaction Man: The Rise of the Deal and the Decline of the American Dream by Nicholas Lemann NF *
Don’t Forget About Me by Mhairi McFarlane – rom com
Guest House for Young Widows: The Women of ISIS by Asadeh Moaveni NF *
Tinfoil Butterfly by Rachel Eve Moulton (horror) F *
A Season on Earth by Gerald Mumane F *
A Song for a New Day by Sarah Pinsker F *
The Education of an Idealist: A Memoir by Samantha Power NF
Ruby and Roland by Faith Sullivan F *
Sept. 13
A Little Hatred by Joe Abercrombie – Thriller
Gamechanger by C. X. Beckett – Science Fiction
The Undying: A Meditation on Modern Illness by Anne Boyer – Memoir
Opioid Indiana by Brian Allen Carr F
Gallows Court by Martin Edwards – Mystery
Think Black: A Memoir by Clyde W. Ford – NF *
The Paris Orphan by Natasha Lester (based on a real story) F *
Heaven, My Home by Attica Locke (Aryan Brotherhood storyline) – Mystery
Wildhood: The Epic Journey from Adolescence to Adulthood in Humans and Other Animals by Barbara Natterson Horowitz and Kathryn Bowers
The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prscott (Women in the CIA) – F *
Pittsburgh by Frank Santoro – Memoir
Snowflake, AZ by Marcus Sedgwick – YA 14+
Imagined Life: A Speculative Journey Among the Exoplanets in Search of Intelligent Aliens, Ice Creatures, and Super Gravity Animals by James Trefil and Michael Summers NF
Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson “this is a wise, powerful, and compassionate novel” F *
Sept. 20
Mycroft and Sherlock: The Empty Birdcage by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Anna Waterhouse F
The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates (currently reading) F *
Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming by Lászió Krasznahorkai, trans. from Hungarian by Ottilie Mulzet F *
The Shadow King by Manza Mengiste (“a slice of Ethiopian history”) F
The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz Science Fiction
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett F
The Fool and Other Moral Tales by Ann Serre, trans. from French by Mark Hutchinson – Short stories
Exile from Eden by Andrew Smith – Dystopian F – YA
Year of the Monkey by Patti Smith – Memoir
Rusty Brown, Part 1 by Chris Ware – Graphic Novel
Sept. 30
I Will Never See the World Again: The Memoir of an Imprisoned Writer by Ahamet Altan, trans. from Turkish by Yasemin Congar NF
A Tall History of Sugar by Curdella Forbes (Jamaica) F
The Shape of Night by Tees Gerritsen – Thriller
The Library of the Unwritten by A. J. Hackwith – Fantasy
Qualifications: A Graphic Memoir in Twelve Steps by David Heatley (addicted to rehab) Memoir
Dry Country by Jake Hinkson F
Whisper of Shadow and Flame by L. Penelope – Fantasy
Sarah Jane by James Sallis F
Frankissstein by Jeanetter Winterson F *
Oct. 6
Salt Slow by Julia Armfield – Short stories
Ninth House by Leigh Burdugo – Fantasy
Ordinary Hazards: A Memoir by Nikki Grimes – Memoir in verse
Older Brother by Mahir Guven, trans. from French by Tina Kover F
American Radicals: How Nineteenth Century Protest Shaped the Nation by Holly Jackson NF *
Fake Bingo by Jac Jemc – Short Stories
How We Fight For Our Lives: A Memoir by Saeed Jones – Memoir
Passing: A Memoir of Love and Death by Michael Korda (wife with brain cancer) NF *
Anti-Social: Online Extremists, Techno Utopians, and the Hijacking of the American Conversation by Andrew Marantz NF *
Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts by Kate Racculia F *
Grand Union by Zadie Smith – Short stories
Commute: An Illustrated Memoir of Female Shame by Erin Williams – Memoir
My September booklist is a bit late this month. No apologies because I am into reading Frederick Douglas: Prophet of Freedom by David W. Blight and, although it is not at all difficult to read, it is long and I have not had as much time to read (because I subscribed to Netflix, very naughty). I have been tempted away from print media for a while. But I will be back and I already have other books clamoring for my attention. Salman Rushdie has a new book and it is calling to me along with all the new fiction on the Amazon list this month. The New York Times Book Review has changed it’s format and I will have to get used to the new setup, so I did not include those books on this month’s list. I will have to get with the new program.
Amazon
Literature and Fiction
Dominicana: A Novel by Angie Cruz *
Quichotte by Salman Rushdie *
The Secrets We Kept: A Novel by Lara Prescott *
Gun Island: A Novel by Amitov Ghosh *
The World That We Knew: A Novel by Alice Hoffman *
The Water Dancer: A Novel by Ta-Nehisi Coates *
The Grammarians: A Novel by Cathleen Schine *
The Dutch House: A Novel by Ann Patchett *
Red at the Bone: A Novel by Jacqueline Woodson *
Opioid, Indiana: A Novel by Brian Allen Carr *
Mysteries and Thrillers
The Nanny: A Novel by Gilly Macmillan
The Institute by Stephen King
A Better Man (a Chief Inspector Gamache Novel) by Louise Penny
Land of Wolves (Walt Longmire Mystery) by Craig Johnson
The Secrets We Kept: A Novel by Lara Prescott
Mycroft and Sherlock: The Empty Birdcage by Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Anna Waterhouse
The Glass Woman: A Novel by Caroline Lea
Cold Storage: A Novel by David Koepp
The Chestnut Man: A Novel by Sören Sviestrup
The Girl Who Lived Twice by David Lagercrantz
Biographies and Memoirs
Make it Scream, Make it Burn (Essays) by Leslie Jamison
Over the Top: A Raw Journey of Self Love by Jonathan Van Ness
The Soul of Care: The Moral Education of a Husband and a Doctor by Arthur Kleinman
High School by Sara Quin, Tegan Quin
The Ride of a Lifetime: Lesson Learned from 15 Years as CEO of Walt Disney Company by Robert Iger
Year of the Monkey by Patti Smith
Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead by Jim Mattis, Bing West
Permanent Record by Edward Snowden
Sontag: Her Life and Work by Benjamin Moser
Prisoner in Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control by Stephanie Kinzer
Nonfiction
We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast by Jonathan Safran Foer
Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know by Malcolm Gladwell
She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story that Helped Ignite a Movement by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey
How to Raise a Reader by Pamela Paul and Maria Russo
How to: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems by Randall Munroe
Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? Big Questions from Tiny Mortals About Death by Caitlin Doughty, Dianné Ruz
Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life by Nir Eyal
The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 by Garett M. Graff
Something Deeply Hidden: Quantum Worlds and the Emergence of Spacetime by Sean Carroll
Super Pumped: The Battle of Uber by Mike Isaac
Science Fiction and Fantasy
Last Ones Left Alive: A Novel by Sarah Davis-Goff
The Testaments: The Sequel to the Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
A Little Hatred (The Age of Madness) by Joe Abercrombie
A Song for a New Day by Sarah Pinsker
The Nightjar by Deborah Hewitt
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
Publisher’s Weekly
Aug. 5th
Without a Prayer: The Death of Lucas Leonard and How One Church Became a Cult by Susan Ashline – NF
King of the Court by Travis Dandro – Memoir
Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law by Haben Girma – Memoir
The Wolf Wants In by Laura McHugh – Thriller
Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silva Moreno-Garcia – F
City of Windows by Robert Pobi – Thriller
The Right Swipe (Modern Love #1 by Alicia Rei – F
Say You Still Love Me by K A Tucker – F
The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware – Thriller
The Remainder by Alia Trabucco Zerán trans. From Sp. By Sophie Hughes
Aug. 12
Rule of Capture by Christopher Brown – Science Fiction Thriller
The Last Ocean: A Journey through Memory and Forgetting by Nicci Gerrard (dementia) NF *
Gods with a Little g by Tupelo Hassman – F *
Unbreak Me by Michelle Hazen – F – Romance
The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee – YA *
Kochland: The Secret History of Koch Industries and Corporate Power in America by Christopher Leonard – NF *
The Perfect Son by Lauren North – F
Inland by Téa Obreht
The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa trans. from Japanese by Stephen Snyder – F
Texas Flood: The Inside Story of Stevie Ray Vaughan by Alan Paul and Andy Aledort – NF
The Plateau by Maggie Paxson NF
The Retreat by Sherri Smith – Thriller
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk trans. from the Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones – F
Catfish Lullaby by A C Wise – Horror novella
Aug. 19
The Cruel Stars by John Birmingham – Science Fiction
The Second Biggest Nothing by Colin Cotterill – F
Coventry: Essays by Rachel Cusk – Essays
A Good Provider is One Who Leaves: One Family and Migration in the 21stCentury by Jason De Parle – NF or based on a true story
Going Dutch by James Gregor – F
Tidelands by Phillippa Gregory – F
The Warehouse by Rob Hart – F
Meet Me in the Future by Kameron Hurley – Short Stories
The Whisper Man by Alex North – Thriller
The World Doesn’t Require You by Rion Amilcar Scott – Short Stories
Machine by Susan Steinberg – Thriller
This Poison Will Remain by Fred Vargas trans. from Frenchy by Siân Reynolds – Mystery
Aug. 23
Everything Inside by Edwidge Danticat – Short Stores
From the Shadows by Juan José Millas trans. from Sp. By Thomas Bunstead and Daniel Hahn – F
A Better Man by Louise Penny – Mystery
The Ventriloquists by E R Ramzipoor – F
Gender and Our Brains: How New Neuroscience Explodes the Myths of Male and Female Minds by Gina Rippon – NF
Aug. 30
Unbreakable: The Woman Who Defied the Nazis in the World’s Most Dangerous Horse Race by Richard Askwith – NF
We the Survivors by Tash Aw – F
Women War Photographers from Lee Miller to Anja Niedringhaus by Anne-Marie Beckmann and Felicity Korn – NF
Dominicana by Angie Cruz – F *
Quichotte by Salman Rushdie – F *
The Art of Statistics: How to Learn From Data By David Spiegelhalter – NF
The Bone Fire by S D Sykes – Whodunit
Fashionopolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes by Dana Thomas – NF
Here is my list of books published in July, available in August. Lots of fiction, not as much nonfiction. If you are someone who loves crime books or thrillers and these kinds of books top your summer reading list then you are all set. There is also quite a bit of interesting science fiction and fantasy for you if that is your taste. And there are several good biographies and memoirs that were published recently. The ones that struck me when I read the summaries are starred. If you Google a book you will get a very short summary of what it’s about. Go to Amazon or your library for a longer description if you’re not sure what to pick. Don’t worry, you can’t keep up. Just dive in and carve out a little niche for yourself. Happy reading.
Amazon
Best Books of August
Literature and Fiction
Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center
American Saint by Sean Gandert *
Chances Are…by Richard Russo *
Tidelands by Philippa Gregory *
Inland by Téa Obreht *
The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christi Lefteri *
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokaczuk, Antonia Lloyd-Jones *
Summerlings by Lisa Howorth *
Gods with a little g by Tupelo Hassman
Mysteries and Thrillers
The Escape Room by Megan Goldin *
The Bitterroots by CJ Box
The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware
The Whisper Man by Alex North
The Last Widow (Will Trent) by Karin Slaughter
The Whisperer (13) (Inspector Sejer Mysteries) by Karin Fossum, Kari Dickson
True Believer (2) (Terminal List) by Jack Carr
The Perfect Wife by JP Delaney
A Keeper by Graham Norton
Don’t Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokaczuk, Antonia Lloyd-Jones
Biographies and Memoirs
Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law by Haben Girma
Idiot Wind: A Memoir by Peter Kaldheim
Alexander the Great: His Life and His Mysterious Death by Anthony Everitt
Barnum: An American Life by Robert Wilson
Natural Rivals: John Muir, Gifford Pinchot, and the Creation of America’s Public Lands by JohnClayton
Texas Flood: The Inside Story of Stevie Ray Vaughan by Alan Paul, Andy Aledort
Nights in White Castle: A Memoir by Steve Rushin
The Sober Diaries: How One Woman Stopped Drinking and Started Living by Clare Pooley
Nobody’s Victim: Fighting Psychos, Stalkers Pervs and Trolls by Carrie Goldberg
Into the Planet: My Life as a Cave Diver by Jill Heinerth
Nonfiction
Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties by Tom O’Neill, Dan Piepenbring
Ludicrous: The Unvarnished Story of Tesla Motors by Edward Niedermeyer
Strange Harvests: The Hidden Histories of Seven Natural Objects by Edward Posnett
The Deep History of Ourselves: The Four-Billion-Year Story of How We Got Conscious Brains by Joseph Le Doux *
How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X Kendi
The Mosquito: A Human History of our Deadliest Predator by Timothy Wineqard
The Intelligence Trap: Why Smart People Make Dumb Mistakes by David Robson *
The Ghosts of Eden Park: The Bootleg King, the Woman Who Pursued Him, and the Murder that Shocked Jazz-Age America by Karen Abbott
The Outlaw Ocean: Journeys Across the Last Untamed Frontier by Ian Urbina
Science Fiction and Fantasy
The Gurkha and the Lord of Tuesday by Saad Z. Hossain
Do You Dream of Terra-Two? By Temi Oh
Blood of an Exile (Dragon of Terra by Brian Haslund)
Shrouded Loyalties by Reese Hogan
The Dragon Republic (The Poppy War) by R F Kuang
Cry Pilot by Joel Dane
Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buston
Turning Darkness into Light by Marie Brennan
The Gossamer Mage by Julie E Gernada
The New York Times Book Review
Crime
Conviction by Denise Mina *
More News Tomorrow by Susan Richards Shreve *
The Island by Ragnar Jonasson
Finding Mrs. Ford by Deborah Goodrich Royce
Fiction
Last Day by Domenica Ruta *
Fall; or, Dodge in Hell by Neal Stephenson *
The Body in Question by Jill Ciment *
Nonfiction
The Guarded Gate by Daniel Okrent *
The Way We Eat by Bee Wilson *
Big Business: A Love Letter to an American Anti-Hero by Tyler Cowen
A Thousand Small Sanities by Adam Gopnik (defense of liberalism) *
The Buried by Peter Hessler
The Shortlist (books on mental illness)
The Edge of Every Day: Sketches of Schizophrenia by Marin Sardy
Mind Fixers: Psychiatry’s Troubled Search for the Biology of Mental Illness by Anne Harrington
Tyrannical Minds: Psychological Profiling, Narcissism, and Dictatorship by Dean Haycock *
If you are a fan of real space travel, there is a list of books related to the Apollo 11 moon landing, which happened around the same time as Woodstock, 50 years ago this year. I also found both interesting fiction and nonfiction available in June, enough titles to make me wish I could read faster. Print the list out, mark it up. Remember you can almost always find a summary on Amazon and at your library or your library’s web site. Some people get a lot of reading done in the summer. Happy 4 th of July.
Amazon
Literature and Fiction
Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes *
Deep River by Karl Marlantes
The Last Book Party by Karen Dukess *
Stay and Fight: A Novel by Madeline Ffitch*
Very Nice: A Novel by Marcy Dermansky *
The Great Unexpected: A Novel by Dan Mooney *
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead *
The Lager Queen of Minnesota: A Novel by J. Ryan Stradel
The Most Fun We Ever Had: A Novel by Claire Lombardo *
In the Full Light of the Sun by Clare Clark *
Mysteries and Thrillers
Lock Every Door: A Novel by Riley Sager
Lady in the Lake: A Novel by Laura Lippman
Whisper Network by Chandler Baker
A Nearly Normal Family by M. T. Edvardsson
The Possession (The Anomaly Files) by Michael Rutger
The Chain by Adrian McKinty
The Friend: A Novel by Joakim Zander
The Need by Helen Phillips
Wanderers: A Novel by Chuck Wendig *
The New Girl (Gabriel Allon) by Daniel Silva *
Big Sky (Jackson Brodie) by Kate Atkinson *
Biographies and Memoirs
Stronghold: One Man’s Quest to Save the World’s Wild Salmon by Tucker Malarkey
Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem: A Memoir by Daniel R. Day
Hitler: A Life by Peter Longrich
This is Not a T-shirt: A Brand, a Culture, a Community – A Life in Streetwear by Bobbie Hundreds
The Vagabonds: The Story of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison’s Ten-Year Road Trip by Jeff Guinn
Casting into the Light: Tales of a Fishing Life by Janet Messineo
They Called Us Enemy by George Takei, Justin Elsinger, Steven Scott, illus. Becker – Memoir
The Lie: A Memoir of Two Marriages, Catfishing and Coming Out by William Dameron
George Marshall: Defender of the Republic by David L. Roll
The Life of John F Kennedy Jr.: America’s Reluctant Prince by Steven M. Gillon
Nonfiction
Hungry: Eating, Road-Tripping, and Risking It all with the Greatest Chef in the World by Jeff Gordinier
Three Women by Lisa Taddeo
Drive-Thru Dreams: A Journey through the Heart of America’s Fast Food Kingdom by Adam Chandler
American Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Killer of the 21stCentury by Maureen Callahan
The Last Leonardo: The Secret Lives of the World’s Most Expensive Painting by Ben Lewis
The Story of the Deadliest Ebola Outbreak in History and of the Outbreaks to Come by Richard Preston
Range: How Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein *
I Like to Watch: Arguing My Way Through the TV Revolution by Emily Nussbaum
Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language by Gretchen McCulloch
In the Valleys of the Noble Beyond: In Search of the Sasquatch by John Zada
Science Fiction and Fantasy
This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone
Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Salvation Day by Kali Wallace
Wanderers: A Novel by Chuck Wendig *
The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep: A Novel by H. G. Parry
The New York Times Book Review
June 7
Fiction
City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert
Loudermilk by Lucy Ives
Bakhita by Véronique Almi
Spring by Ali Smith
Crime
This Storm by James Ellroy
The Sentence is Death by Anthony Horowitz
Murder in Bel-Air by Cara Black
The Body in the Castle Well by Martin Walker
The Shortlist
The Selected Works of Abdullah The Cossack by H. M. Naqvi
There’s a Word for that by Sloane Tanen
Cheer Up, Mr. Widdicombe by Evan James
Nonfiction
The Queen by Josh Levin
No Visible Bruises by Rachel Louise Snyder
Generation Wuss by Bret Easton Ellis
The Pandemic Century by Mark Honigsbaum
The Pioneers by David McCullough
Range by David Epstein
Gropius by Fiona MacCarthy
Moneyland by Oliver Bullough
June 14
Nonfiction
Underland by Robert Macfarlane
L.E.I.: The Lost Life and Scandalous Death of Letitia Elizabeth Landon, the Celebrated Female Byron by Lucasta Miller
The Death of Politics by Peter Wehner
The Right Side of History by Ben Shapiro
Clear and Present Safety by Michael A. Cohen and Micah Zinko
Women’s Work by Megan Stack
The Conservative Sensibility by George Will
Love Your Enemies by Arthur C. Brooks
The Case for Trump by Victor Davis Hansson
Fiction
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
Greatest Hits by Laura Barnett
Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan
Where We Come From by Oscar Cásares
The Short List (from France)
Life of David Hockney by Catherine Cusset, trans. by Teresa Lavender Fagan
Exposed by Jean-Phillippe Blondel, trans. by Alison Anderson
Lie With Me by Philippe Besson, trans. by Molly Ringwald
June 21
50th Anniversary of Apollo 11
Hasselblad and the Moon Landing by Deborah Ireland
Apollo’s Legacy: Perspectives on the Moon Landing by Roger Launius
Shoot For the Moon: The Space Race and the Extraordinary Voyage of Apollo 11 by James Donovan
Apollo To The Moon: A History in 50 Objects by Teasel Muir-Harmony
Chasing the Moon: The People, the Politics, and the Promise that Launched America Into the Space Age by Roger Stone and Alan Andres
American Moonshot: John F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race by David Brinkley
One Giant Leap: The Impossible Mission that Flew Us to the Moon by Charles Fishman
Nonfiction
The Plaza by Julie Satow
War and Peace by Nigel Hamilton *
Autumn Light: Season of Fire and Farewells by Pico Iyer
The White Devil’s Daughters by Julia Flynn Siler
Assad or We Burn the Country by Sam Dagher
Fiction
Original Prin by Randy Boyagoda
Orange World by Karen Russell (Short Stories)
Strangers and Cousins by Leah Hager Cohen
Big Sky (Det. Jackson Brodie) by Kate Atkinson *
Murder in the Crooked House by Soji Shimada
The Poison Thread by Laura Parcell
The Last House Guest by Megan Miranda
Children of the Ghetto by Elias Khoury
Walking on the Ceiling: A Novel by Aysegül Savas
The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna by Juliet Grames *
All the Good Things by Claire Fisher
How We Disappeared by Jing-Jing Lee
June 28
Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner *
The Electric Hotel by Dominic Smith
My Life as a Rat by Joyce Carol Oates
America Was Hard to Find by Kathleen Alcott
Juliet the Maniac by Juliet Escoria
Riots I Have Known by Ryan Chapman *
Nonfiction
Democracy May Not Exist But We’ll Miss It When It’s Gone by Astra Taylor
The Problem of Democracy by Nancy Isenberg and Andrew Burstein
The America: The Case for The Nation by Jill Lepore
Never Lovely So Real (Nelson Algren Biography) by Colin Asher
People, Power, and Profits by Joseph E. Stiglitz
Ill Winds by Larry Diamond. *
Spying of the South by Tony Horwitz
Once More We Saw Stars by Jayson Greene
Bottle of Lies by Katherine Eban
Picnic Comma Lightning by Laurence Scott
Publisher’s Weekly
June 7
Elderhood, Redefining Aging, Tranforming Medicine, Reimaging Life by Louise Aronson (NF)
Bunny by Mona Awad (F) *
Recursion by Blake Crouch (Thriller)
Honestly We Meant Well by Grant Ginder (F)
Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck and Fortune by Rosalie Lim (F)
The Darwin Affair by Tim Mason (Thriller)
The Stonewall Riots: A Documentary History by Marc Stein (NF)
Paris, 7 A. M. by Liza Wieland (Based on life of poet, Elizabeth Bishop) (F)
Mrs. Everything by Jennifer Weiner (F)
The History of Living Forever by Jake Wolff (F)
June 14
The Body Lies by Jo Baker (F)
Fake Like Me by Barbara Bourland
The Tenth Muse by Catherine Chung (F) *
Roughhouse Friday: A Memoir by Jaed Coffin (F)
Empress of Forever by Max Gladstone (Science Fiction). *
The Capital by Robert Menasse (F)
Eyes in the Sky: The Secret Rise of Gorgon Stare and How It Will Watch Us All by Arthur Holland Michel (NF)
Conviction by Denise Mina (Thriller)
The Last House Guest by Megan Miranda (Thriller)
Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay (F) (YA to Adult)
Flash Count Diary: Menopause and the Vindication of Natural Life by Darcey Steinke (NF)
June 21
Drive-Thru Dreams: A Journey Through the Heart of America’s Fast Food Kingdom by Adam Chandler (NF)
Happiness, As Such by Natalia Ginzberg, trans from Italian by Minna Zallman Proctor
Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes (F) *
The Maze of Transparencies by Karen An-hwei Lee.(F) *
Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties by Tom O’Neill with Dane Piepenbring (NF) (True Crime)
Murder in the Crooked House by Soji Shimada, trans. from Japanese by Louise Heal Kawai (puzzle mystery)
The Friend by Joakim Zander from Swedish by Elizabeth Clark Wessel (Thriller)
June 28
American Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21 st Century by Maureen Callahan (NF)
The Best Science Fiction of the Year, Vol. 4 by Neil Clarke (Science Fiction Short Stories)
Second Sight by Aoife Clifford (Crime Novel)
Very Nice by Marcy Dermansky (F) *
Betrayal. In Time: A Kendra Donovan Mystery by Julie McElwain (F)
Shadowlands: Fear and Freedom at the Oregon Standoff by Anthony McCann (NF) Cliven Bundy and Son) *
Maggie Brown and Others by Peter Omer (Character Sketches)
The Me I Used to Be by Jennifer Ryan (F) *
Lock Every Door by Riley Sagar (Thriller)
The Public Option: How to Expand Freedom, Increase Opportunity, and Promote Equality by Genesh Sitaramen and Anne L Alstott (NF) (Favors public opinion)
Summer months often see publishers offering readers plenty of treasures, perhaps to attract readers who have more time to read in the summer. Lots of good books on this June Book List. I tend to try to be reasonable about the number of books I add asterisks to, because I cannot possibly read everything. Books with asterisks are not my recommendations for everyone. They are my picks for me. Sometimes I wish I could be cloned and one version of me could happily spend all her time reading while the other version of me could do laundry, clean bathrooms, mop floors, cook meals, do dishes, and socialize. Alas another part of me hopes we never learn how to clone ourselves and accepts that I have to read when I can. I share my reviews on goodreads.com. (as Nancy Brisson) I also have a book blog https://nbrissonsbookblog.com
Please stop by.
Amazon
Literature and Fiction
The Stationery Shop: A Novel by Marjan Kamali
The Travelers: A Novel by Regina Porter
Patsy: A Novel by Nicole Dennis-Benn
Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory by Raphael Bob-Waksberg
Ask Again, Yes: A Novel by Mary Beth Kane
The History of Living Forever: A Novel by Jake Wolff
On Earth We Were Briefly Gorgeous: A Novel by Ocean Vuong
Mrs. Everything: A Novel by Jennifer Weiner *
The Porpoise: A Novel by Mark Haddon
City of Girls: A Novel by Elizabeth Gilbert *
Mystery and Thriller
Joe Country (Slough House) by Mick Herron
The Sentence is Death: A Novel by Anthony Horowitz
Recursion: A Novel by Blake Crouch
Keep You Close: A Novel by Karen Cleveland
Murder in Bel-Air (An Aimeé Leduc Investigation) by Cara Black
One Night at the Lake: A Novel by Sarah Galley
The Darwin Affair: A Novel by Tim Mason
This Storm: A Novel by James Ellroy
Rogue Strike (A Jake Keller Thriller) by David Ricciardi
The Summer We Lost Her by Tish Cohen
Biographies and Memoirs
Smokin’ Joe: The Life of Joe Frazier by Mark Kram Jr.
We Jumped the Devil: The Real Life of Robert Johnson by Bruce Conforth, Gayle Dean Wardlow
The Great Successor: The Divinely Perfect Destiny of Brilliant Comrade Kim Jong Un by Anna Fifield
And Then It Fell Apart by Moby
Naturally Tan: A Memoir by Tan France
The Beautiful No: Tales of Trials, Transcendence and Transformation by Sheri Salata
Grinnell: America’s Environmental Pioneer and His Restless Drive to Save the West by John Faliaferro
My Parents: A Introduction/This Does Not Belong to You by Aleksandar Hermon
On Being Human: A Memoir of Waking Up, Living Real and Listening Hard by Jennifer Pastiloff, Lydia Yuknavitch
Formation: A Woman’s Memoir of Stepping Out of Line by Ryan Leigh Dostie
Nonfiction
Outrages: Sex, Censorship and the Criminalization of Love by Naomi Wolf
The Ice at the End of the World: A Epic Journey into Greenland’s Buried Past and Our Perilous Future by Jon Gertner
William S. Burroughs and the Cult of Rock ‘n’ Roll by Casey Rae
Eyes in the Eye: The Secret Rise of Gorgon Stare and Now it Will Watch Us All by Arthur Holland Michel
Underland: A Deep Journey by Robert Macfarlane
The Ministry of Truth: The Biography of George Orwell’s 1984 by Dorian Lynskey
Norco ’80: The True Story of the Most Spectacular Bank Robbery in American History by Peter Houlahan
More Fun in the New World, The Unmaking and Legacy of La Punk by John Doe, Tom DeSavia
VC: An American History by Tom Nicholes (Venture Capital)
The Last Pirate of New York: A Ghose Ship, a Killer and the Birth of a Gangster Nation by Rich Cohen
Science Fiction and Fantasy
The Kingdom by Jess Rothenberg
Fall, or Dodge in Hell: A Novel by Neal Stephenson *
War (House War) by Michelle West
The Girl in Red by Christina Henry *
Empress of Forever by Max Gladstone *
Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson
The Lesson: A Novel by Cadwell Turnbull *
Magic for Liars: A Novel by Sarah Galley
The Outside by Ada Hoffmann
The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t With Her Mind by Jackson Ford
The New York Times Book Review
May 3
Fiction
The Flight Portfolio: A Novel by Julie Orringer
Henry, Himself by Stewart O’Nan
Oksena Behave by Maria Zuznetsova
Lights All Night Long by Lydia Fitzpatrick
The Spectators by Jennifer duBois
The Other Americans by Laila Lalami
Homeland by Fernando Aramburu
Nonfiction
Firefighting by Ben S. Bernanki, Timothy F. Geithner and Henry M. Paulson Jr.
How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell
The Unwanted by Michael Dobbs
So Much Longing in So Little Space: The Art of Edvard Munch by Karl Ove Knausgaard
Martin Buber: A Life of Faith and Dissent by Paul Mendes-Flohr (Bio)
The Lost Gutenberg by Margaret Davis
Democracy and Dictatorship in Europe by Sheri Berman *
Crime
The Paris Diversion by Chris Pavone *
Black Mountain by Laird Barron
The Unquiet Heart by Kaite Welsh
The Woman in the Blue Cloak by Deon Meyer
May 10
Nonfiction
Our Man (Bio of Richard Holbrooke) by George Packer *
Maybe You Should Talk To Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed by Lori Gottlieb *
Leap of Faith by Michael J. Mazarr (Why Iraq War)
Fall and Rise by Mitchell Zuckoff (9/11) *
Beeline by Shalini Shankar
The Death and Life of Aida Hernandez by Aaron Bobrow-Strain
The Second Mountain by David Brooks *
The Shortlist
Blueprint by Nicholas Christakis
Humanimal by Adam Rutherford
Genesis by E.O. Wilson
Fiction
Miracle Creek by Angie Kim
Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton
Revolutionaries by Joshua Furst (60’s)
The Dragonfly Sea by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor
The Binding by Bridget Collins
May 17
Nonfiction
Furious Hours by Casey Cep
Who Brooklyn was Queer by Hugh Ryan
The Body Papers by Grace Taluson
Mother is a Verb by Sarah Knott
Sea People by Christina Thompson (Polynesia)
Endeavor by Peter Moore (Polynesia)
The Golden Age by Ian Kershaw
The Heartland by Kristine L. Hoganson
Nanaville by Anna Quindlen (True Short Stories)
Fiction
Not by Bryan Washington (Short stories)
The Parisian by Isabella Hammad *
Rabbits for Food by Binnie Kirshenbaum
The Ash Family by Molly Dektar
Normal People by Sally Rooney
Optic Nerve by Maria Gainza (from Argentina)
May 24
Nonfiction
The British are Coming by Rick Atkinson *
Sissy by Jacob Tobia
Real Queer America by Samantha Allen
The Player’s Ball by David Kushner
A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell
The Impeachers by Brenda Wineapple
Upheaval by Jared Diamond
The Last Job by Dan Bilefsky
Ghosts of Gold Mountain by Gordon H. Chang
Fiction
Red Birds by Mohammed Hanif *
Feast Your Eyes by Myla Goldberg
The Farm by Joanne Ramos *
Shortlist (new French fiction)
The Cook by Maylis de Kerangal
Waiting for Bojangles by Olivier Bourdeaut
Hold Fast Your Crown by Yannick Haenel
May 31
Fiction
The Poison Bed by Elizabeth Fremantle
Dream Sequence by Adam Fould
Prince of Monkeys by Nnamdi Ehirim
The Fox and Dr. Shimamura by Christine Wunnicke
Westside by W. M. Akers
Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips
Throw Me to the Wolves by Patrick McGuinness
Dawson’s Fall by Roxana Robinson
How Not to Die Alone by Richard Roper
Thomas and Beal in the Midi by Christopher Tilghman
The Unpassing by Chia-Chia Lin
Nonfiction
Mr. Know-it-All: The Tarnished Wisdom of a Filth Elder by John Waters
How to Become a Federal Criminal by Mike Chase (reviewer says ‘very funny’)
How to Build a Boat by Jonathan Gornall
Boom by Michael Shnayerson
Becoming Dr. Seuss by Brian Jay Jones
K by Tyler Kepner
Best. Movie. Year. Ever: How 1999 Blew Up the Big Screen by Brian Raftery
The Regency Years by Robert Morrison *
Bitcoin Billionaires by Ben Mezrich (‘the Winklevii)
Hotbox by Matt and Ted Lee
Cult of Dead Cow by Joseph Menn (hacking)
Funny Man by Patrick McGilligan (Mel Brooks)
Land of the Ozarks by Bill Geist
The Lady from the Black Lagoon by Mallory O’Meara
Hot, Cold, Heavy, Light by Peter Schjodahl
The Drama of Celebrity by Sharon Marcus
The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books by Edward Wilson-Lee
Ladysitting: My Year with Nana at the End of Her Century by Lorene Cary *
How to Forget by Kate Mulgrew *
Broadway, Balanchine and Beyond by Bettijane Sills
Dancing with Merce Cunningham by Marianne Preger-Simon
Out of the Shadows by Walt Odets
Underland by Robert Macfarlane
Publisher’s Weekly
May 3
With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo (F) (YA)
The Assassin of Verona by Benet Brandreth (F)
Exhalation: Stories by Ted Chiang (Science Fiction) (Short stories) *
The Law of the Skies by Gregoire Courtois, trans. from French by Rhonda Mullens (F)
The Archive of Alternate Endings: A Novel by Lindsey Drager (F)
The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna (F) *
The Buried: An Archeology of the Egyptian Revolution by Peter Hessler (NF)
Calm Seas and Prosperous Voyage by Bette Howland (Short Stories)
China Dream by Ma Jian, trans. from Chinese by Flora Drew (F)
The Flight Portfolio: A Novel by Julie Orringer (F)
Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and The End of the American Century by George Packer (NF) *
Rough Magic: Riding the World’s Loneliest Horse Race by Lara Prior-Paler (NF)
May 10
The British are Coming: The War for America: Lexington to Princeton Volume One of the Revolution Trilogy by Rick Atkinson *
The Never Game by Jeffrey Deaver (F)
Dream Sequence by Adam Foulds (F)
A Thousand Small Sanities: The Moral Adventure of Liberalism by Adam Gopnik (NF) *
Once More We Saw Stars: A Memoir by Jason Greene (Memoir)
Red Birds by Mohammed Hanif (F) *
The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren (F)
Dream Within a Dream by Patricia MacLachlan (YA)
The Satapur Moonstone: A Mystery of 1920’s India by Sujata Massey (F)
The Obsoletes by Simeon Mills (F)
Lanny by Max Porter (F)
No Visible Bruises: What We Don’t Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us by Rachel Louise Snyder (NF)
Message from the Shadows by Antonio Tabucchi, trans. from Italian by Anne Milano (Short Stories)
May 17
Gather the Fortunes by Bryan Camp (Fantasy)
Riots I Have Known by Ryan Chapman (F)
The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins (F)
Hot Comb by Ebony Flowers (Short Stories)
The Island by Ragnar Jónasson (Thriller)
Deception Cove by Owen Laukkanen (F)
Necessary People by Anna Pitonisk (F)
The Organs of Sense by Adam Ehrlich Sachs (F)
The Vinyl Frontier: The Story of the Voyager Golden Record by Jonathan Scott (NF)
Einstein’s War: How Relativity Triumphed Amid the Vicious Nationalism of World War I by Matthew Stanley (NF)
The Perfect Predator: A Scientist’s Race to Save Her Husband from a Deadly Superbug by Steffanie A Strathdee, Thomas Patterson (NF)
May 24
Supernavigators: The Astounding New Science of How Animals Find Their Way by David Barrie (NF)
Time is the Thing a Body Moves Through: An Essay by T. Fleischmann (Essay)
The Sentence is Death by Anthony Horowitz (Mystery)
Passion on Park Avenue by Lauren Layne (Romance) *
Dark Site by Patrick Lee (F)
Austentatious: The Evolving World of Jane Austen Fans by Holly Luetkenhaus and Zoe Weinstein (NF)
May 31
A History of the Bible: The Story of the World’s Most Influential Book by John Barton (NF)
Exposed by Jean-Phillippe Blondel (F) *
This Storm by James Ellroy (F)
City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert (F) *
Ayesha At Last by Uzma Jalaluddin (on Pride and Prejudice) (F)
Underland: A Deep Time Journey by Robert Macfarlane (NF)
Out of the Shadows: Reimaging Gay Men’s Lives by Walt Odets (Memoir)
Dual Citizens by Alix Ohlin (F)
Aug. 9 – Fog by Kathryn Scanlan (F) *
Grinnell: America’s Environmental Pioneer and his Restless Drive to Save the West by John Taliaferro (NF)
Love They Neighbor: A Muslim Doctor’s Struggle for Home in Rural America by Ayaz Virji with Alan Eisenstock (NF)
Don’t judge a book by its title. If you paste the title or type it into Google or Amazon you can get a nice brief summary of the book. I have marked some books that I like with an asterisk. This does not mean that you will like these titles best. I sometimes get a brief description of a book as I am compiling this list but I don’t do a search about every book. Keep your eyes open and you will begin to hear which new books create a buzz on people’s reading lists that is reflected on the internet. If you don’t pay any attention to book talk and like to pick your own selections just dip in and start reading. Summer is coming. Some people get lots of reading done in summer, perhaps on vacations. (Probably not if you have young children.) So many good books, so little time.
Amazon
Literature and Fiction
Rabbits for Food by Binnie Kirshenbaum
Riots I Have Known by Ryan Chapman
The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna: A Novel by Juliet Grames
Walking on the Ceiling: A Novel by Aysegul Savas
Correspondents by Tim Murphy *
The Guest Book: A Novel by Sarah Blake
The Farm: A Novel by Joanne Ramos
Like Lions: A Novel by Brian Panowich
A Job You Mostly Won’t Know How to Do: A Novel by Pete Fromm
The Confessions of Frannie Langton: A Novel by Sara Collins
Mystery and Thrillers
Little Darlings: A Novel by Melanie Golding
Like Lions: A Novel by Brian Panowich
The Paris Diversion: A Novel by Chris Pavone
The Road to Grantchester by James Runcie
The Night Before: A Novel by Wendy Walker
Cari Mora: A Novel by Thomas Harris
The Rationing: A Novel by Charles Whellan
The Last Time I Saw You: A Novel by Liv Constantine
The Never Game by Jeffrey Deaver
The Satapur Moontstone (A Perveen Mistry Novel) by Sujata Massey
Biographies and Memoirs
Bitcoin Billionaires: A True Story of Genius, Betrayal, and Redemption by Ben Mezrich
The Apology by Eve Ensler
No Walls and the Recurring Dream: A Memoir by Ani DiFranco
Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the America Century by George Packer
The Deer Camp: A Memoir of a Father, a Family, and the Land that Healed Them by Dean Kulpers
Nothing’s Bad Luck: the Lives of Warren Zevon by C M Kushins
Riding the Elephant: A Memoir of Altercations Hallucinations, and Observations by Craig Ferguson
How to Forget: A Daughter’s Memoir by Kate Mulgrew
Stay Sexy & Don’t Get Murdered: The Definitive How-To Guide by Karen Kilgariff, Georgia Hardstark
Nonfiction
Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud and the Last Trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep
Bitcoin Billionaires: A True Story of Genius, Betrayal, and Redemption by Ben Mezrich
The Dreamt Land: Chasing Water and Dust Across California by Mark Arax
The Darkest Places: Unsolved Mysteries, True Crimes, and Harrowing Disasters in the Wild by the Editors of Outside Magazine
The Castle on Sunset: Life, Death, Love, Art, and Scandal at Hollywood’s Hotel Marmont by Shawn Levy
Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations in Crisis by Jared Diamond *
Moneyland: The Inside Story of the Crooks and Kleptocrats Who Rule in the World by Oliver Bullough *
The Moscow Rules: The Secret CIA Tactics that Helped America Win the Cold War by Antonio J Mendez, Jonna Mendez *
Every Tool’s a Hammer: Life is What You Make It by Adam Savage
Ghosts of Gold Mountain: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad by Gordon H. Chang
Science Fiction and Fantasy
Last Tango in Cyberspace: A Novel by Steven Lotter
Breach (An Analog Novel) by Eliot Peper
Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky
A Brightness Long Ago by Guy Gavriel Kay
Middlegame by Seanan McGuire
The New York Times Book Review
April 5th
Fiction
Lost and Wanted by Nell Freudenberger
Bangkok Wakes to Rain by Pitchaya Sudbanthad
The Blind Worm in the Labyrinth by Veeraporn Nitiprapha
The Volunteer by Salvatore Scibona
The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See
Kaddish.com by Nathan Englander “Like a JDate for the Dead”
Nonfiction
Skeleton Keys by Brian Switek
Horizon by Barry Lopez
Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham
What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker by Damon Young (Essays)
Coders by Clive Thompson *
Solitary by Albert Woodfox *
The Club by Leo Damrosch *
The Empire and the Five Kings by Bernard-Henri Lévy
Gullible Superpower by Ted Galen Carpenter
April 12th
Fiction
The River by Peter Heller *
Trust Exercise by Susan Choi
The Altruists by Andrew Ridker (Humor)
Women Talking by Miriam Toews
River of Fire by Quirrtulain Hyder
The Alarming Palsy of James Orr by Tom Lee
Nonfiction
Charged by Emily Bazelon
Save Me the Plums by Ruth Reichl
Hale by Marc Weitzmann
The Last Stone by Mark Bowden (True Crime)
The Lion’s Den by Susie Linfield (Essay)
All You Leave Behind by Erin Lee Carr
April 19th
Nonfiction
Working: Researching, Interviewing, Writing by Robert a Caro, Private Eye
Falter by Bill McKibbens
Running Home by Katie Arnold *
Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls by T. Kira Madden
The Beneficiary: Fortune, Misfortune, and the Story of my Father by Janny Scott
The Absent Head by Suzannah Lessard
Ben Hecht by Adina Hoffman
The Notorious Ben Hecht by Julien Gorbach
Fiction
The Club by Takis Würger
Outside Looking In by T C Boyle
A Wonderful Stroke of Luck by Ann Beattie *
Little Boy by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Minutes of Glory by Ngugi wa Thiong’o (Short Stories)
Naamah by Sarah Blake
Crime
Neon Prey by John Sandford
Who Slays the Wicked by C S Harris
Lights! Camera! Puzzles! By Parnell Hall
The Missing Corpse by Sorcha McDonagh
Fiction
The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson
Make Me a City by Jonathan Carr
The Shortlist
That Time I Loved You by Carrianne Leung
Sing To It by Amy Hempel (Short Stories)
Aerialists by Mark Meyer
April 26th
Nonfiction
The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace Webb
Losing Earth by Nathaniel Rich
Unbecoming by Anuradha Bhagwati
American Messiahs by Adam Morris
What You Have Heard is True by Carolyn Forché
Greek to Me by Mary Norris
What Blest Genius by Andrew McConnell Scott
Shakespeare’s Library by Stuart Kells
Stony the Road by Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Biased by Jennifer L Eberhardt
Fiction
A People’s History of Heaven by Mathangi Subramanian
Vacuum in the Dark by Jen Beagin
The New Me by Halle Butler
Publisher’s Weekly
April 5th
Wounds: Six Stories from the Border of Hell by Nathan Ballingrud (Short Story)
Charged: The New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration by Emily Bazelon (NF)
Working: Research, Interviewing, Writing by Robert A Caro (Essays)
Trust Exercise by Susan Choi (F)
Confessions of an Innocent Man: A Novel by David R Dow (F)
Optic Nerve by Maria Gainza (F)
The Parisian: A Novel by Isabella Hammad (F) *
Freedom’s Detectives: The Secret Service, the Ku Klux Klan and the Man Who Masterminded America’s First War on Terror by Charles Lane (NF)
Helen Oxenbury: A Life in Illustration by Leonard S Marcus (NF)
Notes from a Young Black Chef: A Memoir by Kwame Onwuachi (NF)
Rock, Paper, Scissors and Other Stories by Maxim Osipov, trans. from Russian by Boris Dralyuk, Alexandra Fleming and Anne Marie Jackson (Short Stories)
The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold (NF)
Tombland by C J Sansom (F)
The Octopus Museum by Brenda Shaunghnessy (Short Stories)
Fame Adjacent by Sarah Skilton (F)
April 12th
Never a Lovely So Real: The Life and Work of Nelson Algren by Colin Asher (Bio)
Autumn Light: Season of Fire and Farewells by Pico Iyer (Memoir)
Nest of the Monarch by Kay Kenyon (3rd in a series) (F)
Falter: Has the Human Gene Begun to Play Itself Out by Bill McKibben (NF)
Hacking Life: Systematized Living and It’s Discontents by Joseph M Reagle Jr. (NF)
Alice’s Island by Daniel Sánchez Avévalo, trans. from Spanish by the author
Eating the Sun: Small Musings on a Vast Universe by Ella Frances Sanders (NF) *
Clyde Fans by Seth (Graphic Novel)
Flowers Over the Inferno by Ilaria Tati, trans. from Italian by Eken Oklap (Crime novel)
The Polyglot Lovers by Lina Wolff, trans. from Swedish by Saskla Vogel (F) *
April 19th
Wunderland by Jennifer Cody Epstein (F) *
Flowers of Mold by Ha Seong-nan, trans. from Korean by Janet Hong (Short Stories)
Sisters and Rebels: A Struggle for the Soul of America by Jacquelyn Dowd Hall (Triple Bio)
The Heartland: An American History by Kristin L Hoganson (NF)
Bitter by Francesca Jakobi (F)
Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan (F) “the novel loses steam”
Hawk Parable by Tyler Myles (F)
Storm of Locusts by Rebecca Roanhorse (Fantasy)
Appendix Project: Talks and Essays by Kate Zambreno (Essays)
April 29 th
Springtime in a Broken Mirror by Marlo Benedetti, trans. from Spanish by Nick Caistor (F)
The Global Age: Europe 1950-2017 by Ian Kershaw (NF) *
The Lazarus Files: A Cold Case Investigation by Matthew McGough (True Crime)
The Invited by Jennifer McMahon (F)
Star by Yukio Mishima, trans. from Japanese by Sam Bett (F)
The Regency Years: During Which Jane Austen Writes, Napoleon Fights, Byron Makes Love, and Britain Becomes Modern by Robert Morrison (NF)*
Waste Tide by Chen Qinfan, trans. from Chinese by Ken Lui (F) *
The Ardlamont Mystery: The Real-Life Story Behind the Creation of Sherlock Holmes by Daniel Smith (NF)
A Good Enough Mother by Bev Thomas (F)
Fall and Rise: The Story of 9/11 by Michael Zuckoff (NF)
So Many Books, Choose Wisely 