Which TBR (To Be Read) Pile?

Every year I get excited about the National Book Awards short list and vow to read all the nominees before the ceremony. This year the challenge is doubly hard thanks to a long list that adds up to ten books.

So far I’ve read four of the nominees:  Tenth of December by George Saunders; The End of the Point by Elizabeth Graver; Someone by Alice McDermott; and A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra.

Three of the National Book Awards nominees.

As of this writing I’m halfway through The Good Lord Bird by James McBride. I have my doubts about tackling Bleeding Edge by Thomas Pynchon so that leaves four to go before the short list is announced on October 16.

To complicate matters I keep gazing over at a pile of October releases. Can I dip into Fools by Joan Silber when The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert is beckoning? Or toss myself into The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner and refrain from taking peeks at The Night Guest by Fiona McFarlane?

Should I ditch nominee Tom Drury’s Pacific for Sunland, the debut by Don Waters that Robert Boswell and Ben Fountain are raving about? Can I ignore The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri to indulge in Havisham by Ronald Frame?

What’s a girl to do? What would you advise?

Book Club Recommendations

It’s that time of year again. Time for book clubs to cast around for new titles. Here are over twenty suggestions I hope will provide mesmerizing reads and great discussions. All are available in paperback.

For Contemporary Fiction Devotees:

The Lola Quartet by Emily St. John Mandel. Take one disgraced NYC journalist and banish him to his hometown of Sebastian, Florida. Throw in a new job as a broker for foreclosed homes and the possibility that he fathered a child with his high school girlfriend. Smart writing, great characters.

Carry the One by Carol Anshaw. A young girl’s death after a wedding has repercussions over the following decades for the bride, her siblings and a host of friends and lovers. The story is fueled by questions of how far we “carry” guilt and why some people cope better than others.

The Middlesteins by Jami Attenberg. Edie Middlestein has always lived to eat. Now her husband of over thirty years has left and her children are obsessed with their mother’s morbid obesity. At what point should familial concerns trump individual rights and desires?

For Short Story Lovers:

Dear Life by Alice Munro. Supposedly the last book we’ll see from the High Priestess of Short Stories. Let the wailing begin but only after you’ve devoured and discussed these fourteen stories.

The News from Spain by Joan Wickersham. Each of these clever stories contains the phrase “the news from Spain.” A sharp first collection.

Shout Her Lovely Name by Natalie Serber. Another impressive debut collection. Several of these stories focus on mothers and daughters and the myriad of issues that bind and divide them.

Regional Fiction Stand-Outs:

The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin. An astounding, lyrical first novel set in rural Washington State at the the turn of the 20th century. One of my favorite books from 2012 featuring one of my favorite characters, William Talmadge. He reminded me of Matthew Cuthbert in Anne of Green Gables.

A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash. In this terrific debut family loyalty is pitted against personal happiness. A young boy in a small North Carolina town is caught between protecting his disabled brother and his community’s fascination with a charismatic preacher.

The Cove by Ron Rash. Few authors meld place and story like Rash. His latest novel is set in a remote Appalachian valley at the height of WWI. A mysterious stranger stumbles into the quiet lives of a shunned woman and her brother, bringing both love and danger with him.

(Here’s yet another opportunity for me to plug one of my all-time favorite books. Serena, Rash’s 2008 novel, is an epic story of lust, greed and revenge. It’s also a great book club selection especially since the movie version is due out later this year.)

Guys and Gals Clubs:

Fobbit by David Abrams. This debut will appeal to both sexes thanks to clever writing and a pitch-perfect narrator. It’s set in a Forward Operating Base (FOB) in Iraq where desk jockeys work behind the scenes of the war. Think “The Office” meets “M*A*S*H.”

A Hologram for the King by Dave Eggers. The main character is middle-aged Alan Clay who has one shot at avoiding bankruptcy and foreclosure: convince a wealthy Saudi Arabian king to purchase an expensive IT program. His biggest challenge is getting a face-to-face with the potential buyer.

The O’Briens by Peter Behrens. Canadian author Behrens is a critics darling who doesn’t get the readership he deserves. His second novel (after his excellent debut, The Law of Dreams) sweeps through six decades in the life of Joe O’Brien and his family beginning around the turn of the 20th century. This book features fine writing and vivid characters. It may remind some readers of The Son by Philipp Meyer.

Boomer Clubs:

An Available Man by Hilma Wolitzer. After the death of his wife, sixty-two-year old Edward Schuyler figures he’ll live out his days alone. But when his stepchildren pop his profile into the New York Review of Books personals, he quickly becomes a hot commodity. This book is witty and engaging with just a touch of the bittersweet.

The Right-Hand Shore by Christopher Tilghman. In 1920 Edward Mason visits an elderly relative on her gorgeous Maryland estate, Mason’s Retreat. His single goal, inheritance, changes after he hears the engrossing story of the Retreat and the lives of those who lived and died there.

Heroic Measures by Jill Ciment. Retirees Alex and Ruth are having a tough 48-hours. They’re attempting to sell their apartment of 45 years and their beloved elderly dachshund has fallen ill.  Tender and nimble, this is a book I wish I could have discussed with others.

Mystery Lovers:

The Invisible Ones by Stef Penney. Private detective Ray Lovell has been hired by a Gypsy family to locate their estranged daughter/sister. He’s half Romany himself so why are his new employees so hostile towards him? Superb writing with a neat plot twist.

Defending Jacob by William Landay. How far would you go to protect your teenage son from a murder charge, especially when you suspect him of being a sociopath?

The Gods of Gotham by Lyndsay Faye. First in a well-researched series set in mid-19th century Manhattan featuring Timothy Wilde, a founding detective in New York City’s police force.

Non-Fiction Gems:

The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe. Part tribute/memoir, part homage to bibliomania. Don’t let the title frighten you away.

The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy by David Nasaw. We’ve read books about his wife, his children and his grandchildren. Here’s the definitive biography of the man at the head of the table.

Yes, Chef by Marcus Samuelsson and Veronica Chambers. Even if you’re not a foodie, you’ll be swept away by Samuelsson’s journey from orphan to culinary hotshot.

MY NOTORIOUS LIFE by Kate Manning

The best historical fiction informs as it entertains. Case in point: MY NOTORIOUS LIFE, (Scribner) the new novel from Kate Manning. Here is an engaging book that will satisfy escapist and contemplative fiction readers alike.

By the time she’s twelve-years-old Axie Muldoon has suffered crippling loss and extreme poverty in the New York City of 1860. Her widowed mother can barely eek out a living and her beloved younger sister and brother have been whisked away to new families in the Midwest. Resilient, stubborn Axie dreams of reuniting her family and living in comfortable circumstances.

After another family tragedy Axie winds up working in the household of the “female physician,” Dr. Evans and his wife. She makes her way from maid to apprentice, learning the art of midwifery and the secrets of contraception. Eventually smart, plain-spoken Axie Muldoon becomes the fabulously wealthy and controversial Madame DeBeausacq, midwife to the rich and the impoverished.

Axie is privy to the despair and physical torment many of her patients face along with the hypocrisy that paints them as “sinners” in a male-dominated society. At the height of her success she’s targeted by the legendary Anthony Comstock and his powerful Society for Suppression of Vice. Suddenly everything Axie and her supportive husband have achieved is threatened along with her dream of bringing her family back together.

Manning based her story on a real-life female physician from the 1800s. Her characters, particularly her leading lady, are well-written and compelling. What raises this novel above other historical fiction is a lively melding of plot, research and a spotlight on women’s issues.

Absorbing and thought-provoking, MY NOTORIOUS LIFE is certain to appeal to historical fiction lovers who appreciate a dose of realism with their entertainment.

Recommended especially for readers who enjoyed:

The Gods of Gotham by Lyndsay Faye
The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan
The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty
The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis

If You Loved…WHERE’D YOU GO, BERNADETTE

When Maria Semple’s second novel came out last year, I knew I had to nab a copy. First, it’s set in Seattle which is 140 miles to my north. Secondly, early reviews described it as a hilarious send-up of that city and the people who live there.

WHERE’D YOU GO, BERNADETTE (Back Bay Books) didn’t disappoint, at least not for the first two-thirds of the book. (My attention began to wander once the penguins showed up.) Semple’s book is a roaring success especially now that it’s in paperback. It’s quirky, amusing and features eccentric characters that every PacNorthWesterner is familiar with.

For readers who loved the book and hunger for a similar one, I suggest seeking out one or more of the following novels:

Starting with a book whose title is hard to resist: THE REVENGE OF THE RADIOACTIVE LADY by Elizabeth Stuckey-French. (Anchor Books) For fifty years Marylou Ahearn has been plotting to kill Dr. Wilson Spriggs, the man who gave her a radioactive cocktail in the early 1950s. When she learns he’s living with his daughter and her family in Florida, the seventy-seven-year-old Marylou moves into the neighborhood.

Killing Spriggs, now suffering from dementia, should be a cake walk but Stuckey-French throws in several dark and droll complications. Plus getting to know Marylou is a delight all its own.

Like Maria Semple, Geoffrey Becker is adept at taking off-kilter characters and placing them in unfamiliar circumstances. In HOT SPRINGS (Tin House Books) he introduces the reader to Bernice, a singular young woman determined to get back the daughter she gave up for adoption. With the help of her new boyfriend, Landis, Bernice snatches five-year-old Emily from her conservative Christian adoptive parents, Tessa and David.

As Bernice frets about her abilities as a mother, Tessa heads out on a wild journey of her own to rescue the child. Becker manages to spin an absorbing often humorous story that questions love, loyalty and what constitutes a family.

Mothers and daughters also take center stage in ALICE FANTASTIC. (Akashic Books) Thirty-something Alice Hunter lives in Queens, New York and earns a good income playing the horses. She loves her little dog, Cindy, but isn’t as keen on her besotted boyfriend, Clayton. In fact Clayton, nicknamed “The Big Oaf,” is becoming a bit of a nuisance.

So Alice asks one of her racetrack buddies to “convince” Clayton to leave her, envisioning nothing more than verbal intimidation. When things go wrong Alice seeks help from her half-sister, Eloise, and the duo’s beloved, unorthodox mother. Estep’s book celebrates family bonds and the odd twists that love often takes.

While WHERE’D YOU GO, BERNADETTE skewered Seattle, Seth Greenland’s third novel takes aim at Palm Springs. In THE ANGRY BUDDHIST two very different candidates vie for a congressional seat. Randall Duke is the incumbent who won’t let anyone, not even a family member, stand in the way of his reelection. His sexy opponent, Mary Swain, has a healthy war chest but isn’t the most astute politico.

In many ways it’s the secondary characters that make this an enjoyable romp. There’s Jimmy Duke, the candidate’s law enforcement brother who studies Buddhism to deal with anger management issues; an anonymous bloggers who mysteriously manages to find dirt on both candidates; and my favorite, Hard Marvin, a cocky police chief with a roving eye and a pampered Rottweiler.

If that’s not enough to grab your interest, here’s what Larry David blurbed for the front cover of Greenland’s book: “It’s satirical, it’s political, it’s sexual. All the things I love dearly. Finally, something to come home to.”

Guest Post on Readmill

The good folks at Readmill asked me to write a post  highlighting some of my favorite books.

I cheated and added a couple of new fall books I’m looking forward to reading.

Check it out and explore Readmill, a new way to read and discuss books on your iPhone or iPad.

Which fall book is tops on your must-read list?

Review: KNOCKING ON HEAVEN’S DOOR by Katy Butler

In November, 2006 I sat next to my mother as her oncologist told her she was terminal.

Mom, who already suspected the answer, asked if there was anything else to be done.

Her doctor, revered by my mother for his bluntness and honesty, answered, “Oh, I can put you through some more treatments. But it won’t change the outcome and it will make you very uncomfortable.”

Just over a year later my mother died in her own bed with her husband of 51 years by her side. During those thirteen months she spent quality time with her children and grandchildren. It wasn’t a great death but it was a dignified and quiet one.

Katy Butler’s father, a retired Wesleyan professor, wasn’t so lucky. In KNOCKING ON HEAVEN’S DOOR (Scribner, September 10) the author recounts the painful, frustrating years between Jeffrey Butler’s stroke at age seventy-nine and his death six years later. Her book is a memoir of sorts but more importantly a troubling look at “…our culture’s idolatrous, one-sided worship of maximum longevity.”

While recovering from his stroke, Jeff Butler was diagnosed with a non-threatening heart ailment. After a series of ill-timed events and appointments a cardiologist outfitted him with a pacemaker. As time went on Butler and her mother watched their father and husband descend into dementia, incontinence, and loss of speech and mobility. All the while the tiny device “about the size of a pocket watch” kept him alive.

What keeps this book from being a “downer” is Butler’s exacting and fascinating look at how modern medicine has changed the face of dying. Sixty years ago, before ICUs, pacemakers, transplants and feeding tubes, most elderly patients died at home without costly and often painful interventions.

In the late 1950s medical research began offering ways to delay the Grim Reaper. A new wave of doctors and scientists invented and perfected methods of extending the average person’s life span. But at what cost? Is living an extra year thanks to artificial means always worth the often extreme pain to both patient and family? Have we become a society that rewards doctors for promoting the length of a life over regarding the quality of it?

Katy Butler

Butler, a respected journalist, folds these questions and research into the story of her father’s painful decline and her mother’s unceasing foray into back-breaking, exhausting caregiving. When Jeff Butler complained to his wife that he was “living too long,” mother and daughter faced moral and medical dilemmas. Could the pacemaker keeping him alive be removed or disabled? Should it be?

This is not a call for elderly euthanasia or a treatise against modern medicine. In many ways KNOCKING ON HEAVEN’S DOOR can be summed up by it’s subtitle: “The Path to a Better Death.” Barely a year after Jeff Butler’s death his widow, Valerie, refused to have open-heart surgery and chose instead to end her days on her own terms. Her author daughter was thus able to observe and reflect on two very different octogenarian deaths.

Recently my 84-year-old father’s internist complimented him on his vigor and good health noting, “Sir, I think you’ll live to see 100.”

Dad’s reply reflects what many seniors fervently wish for: “God, I hope not.”

Highly Recommended Especially for Readers Who Enjoyed:

The Emperor of Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Reading My Father by Alexandra Styron
Far From the Tree by Andrew Solomon
On Death and Dying by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Portland, OR readers take note: Katy Butler will be appearing at Powell’s City of Books (1005 West Burnside) on Wednesday, September 18, at 7:30 PM. This event is free to the public.

For other appearances you can check Katy Butler’s website.