I’ve read some great books lately. Have you? Please share! Here are my own idiosyncratic recommendations:
The Sympathizer, by Viet Thanh Nguyen – This won the Pulitzer for fiction, and although it’s sometimes hard to follow who’s doing what where, I found the milieu (post fall of Saigon) fascinating, and the uncertainty about levels of deception suspenseful. The writing was superlative. Not an easy read, but a rewarding one.
The House By the Lake, by Thomas Harding – A true account of a cottage on a lake about an hour from Berlin, from the 1920’s when the author’s great-grandparents built it, through 2014, when it was restored and placed on the Register of Historic Places. A microcosm of the history of Berlin during these years, the book brought to life all the changes during these decades in a very personal and compelling way, including the bike and running path in front of the house that used to be where the Berlin Wall was.
The Mothers, by Britt Bennett – This is for when you just want to speed read and not think too much. I thought this book was like a more current Jodi Picoult novel – lots of emotion, but with black characters and “the mothers”, the churchwomen who were like a Greek chorus to the events. A fun read!
The Widower’s Tale, by Julia Glass – I loved The Three Junes, Julia Glass’ first novel to gain recognition, and was eager to read this one. It didn’t disappoint. The characters and setting of The Widower’s Tale were oh-so-familiar to me, and probably will be to you, too. Set in Cambridge and suburbs, we know the thinly-disguised towns. Is Lincoln the once-bohemian, Maynard the gentrifying mill town? The characters could be us, could be people we know, could be composites of lots of people we know. Regardless, very familiar. But the arc of events is deliciously unpredictable, as cranky Percy Darling falls in love with an unconventional (and much younger) artist, his perfect grandson becomes victim to his own protected life, and his children – well, life happens. Everyone and everything changes. For all of us, family is everything. So, too, in this novel. I liked it!
The Daily Show, by Chris Smith – An in-depth history of the genesis, development and end of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart as host, this is the real deal. If you watched the show, you’ll like going behind the scenes.
The Trespassers, by Tana French – Ingenious plotting, where nothing and no one is what or whom they appear to be, and brisk, irreverent dialogue move this suspenseful crime novel quickly. Antoinette Conway and Stephen Moran are the good guy detectives, Breslin the overbearing detective who seems to have an agenda not justified by the circumstances. The plot twists and turns; people have secrets; the hypotheses fall apart. Nothing is predictable, the characters are vivid, and the writing just the way it should be. A really fun read!
An eclectic list, this, but there’s probably something in there for you. Turn on the fire, light the candles, make hot chocolate, and get lost in a good book!
