Today, on Boston public radio station WGBH, Emily Rooney hosted authors in the studio and by phone, recommending summer reading. It was a wonderful one-hour session you can listen to at this link, http://www.wgbh.org/programs/The-Emily-Rooney-Show-854
Andre Dubus III, Alice Hoffman, Hank Philippi Ryan and others joined listeners in making recommendations of great summer reading - contemporary and older.
Read It and Reap recommends this show. And the list is also on WGBH's website.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Light summer reading, clubs
Read It and Reap
Telegram & Gazette, June 26
Many clubs take a break over summer, as members catch up on non-club reading. Before they do, though, they often choose one or more books for the fall. Usually, that involves a discussion followed by a vote; in other groups, a leader selects the choices based on input. Library clubs generally are decided among staff members.
To stay current, many clubs choose fewer than three selections at a time. That way, new books are more likely to be discussed. This is a more vital approach than blindly following the ever-growing list of “book club” selections with reader guides. Sure—these are good books. But there are too many good, non-trendy books to stick to a diet of routine club choices.
One helpful process is for members to describe their picks in a brief summary and e-mail each other during the week or two before selection. It’s easy to lose members if a group sticks to choices that are too saccharine or too dark; a blend is important, as is discovery.
One of the biggest book group complaints is that a book was too dark. There’s no escaping harsh reality in them. And, while we all have a different opinion about bleak (I’m thinking of Cormac McCarthy’s haunting take on post-Apocalyptic America, “The Road”), members also can’t agree about what makes them happy. Some wouldn’t touch Chick Lit with a Nook, and some prefer a pithy rather than humor and happy endings.
Dissension makes good conversation. Clubs also expose one to reading one wouldn’t ordinarily select, leading to discoveries. Some clubs consciously seek out cult writers, themed topics or first-time authors. Others define themselves as mystery book clubs, sci-fi readers or history clubs. It’s all good, really. Every genre has its high points.
But it’s summer now—time for a light touch by the pool. Books don’t need to be insipid to entertain. They can be beautifully written, or neatly contrived, to inspire good feelings. That a book expresses joy does not mean it is false or less than a worthy read.
Some of my favorites:
• Jan Karon’s series on a minister’s life in a fictional southern town, beginning with “At Home in Mitford,” portrays good people with light hearts and forgiving souls;
• Concord, Mass., author Gregory Maguire’s revisited fairy tales (the most famous being “Wicked”) includes new takes on Cinderella (“Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister”) and Snow White (“Mirror, Mirror”)—they’re whimsical and imaginative;
• New Hampshire author Nancy Clark’s “The Hills at Home” features a lively family of flaky relatives;
• Westborough’s Daniel Bruce Brown (disclosure: a friend) takes a farcical look at what the nation’s first Jewish president might encounter. “Roll Over, Hitler” won the 2010 fiction award from the Independent Publishers Association in May;
• Bill Bryson’s “A Walk in the Woods” is one funny travel story, drawn on his solo trip along the Appalachian Trail;
• “I Feel Bad About my Neck” is Nora Ephron’s wry look at aging: honest and witty;
• Vermont author Howard Mosher writes with warm humor about small town life—and baseball fans—in his books. My favorite, “Waiting for Teddy Williams”;
• A book need not be funny, either. Kent Haruf is a master storyteller, revealing the fears and failures of people with honesty and kindness. I loved “Plainsong” and its old bachelor farmers who take in a teenager who is pregnant and alone;
• Langston Hughes’ “Not Without Laughter” is a rare look inside the childhood and adolescence of a young black man growing up in the Midwest. It’s beautiful;
• Richard Russo’s “Empire Falls” and “Nobody’s Fool” are lasting portrayals of small towns and rich characters. I will always love these two works;
• “To Kill a Mockingbird.” If you somehow missed it in school, read it. If you’ve grown up since you first read it, read it again;
• Annie Proulx is a favorite writer of captivating short stories. Her novel, “The Shipping News,” is absorbing.
This is only a start. Enjoy that beach chair.
Area book clubs, events
Note to clubs: What was your top read in the last season? What’s coming up for Fall? Contact Ann Frantz by e-mailing ann.frantz@gmail.com, or see blog at Readitandreeap.blogspot.com (two ee’s is correct).
STURBRIDGE—Armchair Travelers chooses a general theme for each reading year. Last season’s, No Place Like Home: the New England Experience, included: “The Wordy Shipmates,” Sarah Vowell; “Widow’s War,” Sally Gunning; “That Old Cape Magic,” Richard Russo; “The Orchard,” Adele Crockett Robertson; “The Last Days of Dogtown,” Anita Diamant; “Looking Backward,” Edward Bellamy; and “Country of the Pointed Firs,” Sarah Orne Jewett.
Author Hallie Ephron visited in May at Old Sturbridge Village to discuss her new New England-based suspense novel, “Come and Find Me.” Joshua Hyde Public Library Director Becky Plimpton invites adults and young adult readers to read Padma Venkatraman’s “Climbing the Stairs” before an Aug. 29 discussion, with a demonstration of Indian cooking.
Summer reading begins July 5; selections posted in the library, and at www.readitandreeap.blogspot.com
HOLDEN—Betsy Johnson says, “Our group reads individually over the summer, and we spend the first meeting in September giving a ‘book report’ to the group.” Johnson previews and chooses the books and orders them for members so they’ll all have the same edition, eliminating reference confusion. Another difference: this group meets WEEKLY! “We always have a good discussion,” Johnson said. Members like the classics, and occasionally dip into an anthology to discuss a short story. Two favorites: Flannery O'Connor's “The Artificial Nigger,” and Eudora Welty's “Ladies in Springtime.” Also, Melville's “Benito Cereno.”
SUTTON—“We meet about every six weeks, so we will have another summer meeting, but we choose our book from month to month. Usually whoever is hosting the next book group picks the book, but that is our loosely held methodology. Just read: "The People of the Book" by Geraldine Brooks (author of the new “Caleb’s Crossing”). Sutton’s favorite books this year included: "Same Kind of Different as Me," Ron Hall and Denver Moore; and “The Help" or "1000 White Women"—both of which generated a lot of discussion. “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society” also generated a lot of discussion. At its next meeting, in late July, this group will discuss “The Girls with the Pearl Earring” and watch a movie of the book, starring Colin Firth.
GARDNER—The Heywood Library Reading Group meets year round, on the last Wednesday of each month at 4:30 p.m. Director Ann Young says attendance averages a dozen, although faces change with each book. They run by the calendar year, so they choose books in November, reviewing recommendations before voting. In February, everyone reads their own choice, then talks about that book. The group’s best discussion in 2011focused on Nell Painter's “The History of White People.” The funniest—although the subject matter was serious—was “The Help.”
Telegram & Gazette, June 26
Many clubs take a break over summer, as members catch up on non-club reading. Before they do, though, they often choose one or more books for the fall. Usually, that involves a discussion followed by a vote; in other groups, a leader selects the choices based on input. Library clubs generally are decided among staff members.
To stay current, many clubs choose fewer than three selections at a time. That way, new books are more likely to be discussed. This is a more vital approach than blindly following the ever-growing list of “book club” selections with reader guides. Sure—these are good books. But there are too many good, non-trendy books to stick to a diet of routine club choices.
One helpful process is for members to describe their picks in a brief summary and e-mail each other during the week or two before selection. It’s easy to lose members if a group sticks to choices that are too saccharine or too dark; a blend is important, as is discovery.
One of the biggest book group complaints is that a book was too dark. There’s no escaping harsh reality in them. And, while we all have a different opinion about bleak (I’m thinking of Cormac McCarthy’s haunting take on post-Apocalyptic America, “The Road”), members also can’t agree about what makes them happy. Some wouldn’t touch Chick Lit with a Nook, and some prefer a pithy rather than humor and happy endings.
Dissension makes good conversation. Clubs also expose one to reading one wouldn’t ordinarily select, leading to discoveries. Some clubs consciously seek out cult writers, themed topics or first-time authors. Others define themselves as mystery book clubs, sci-fi readers or history clubs. It’s all good, really. Every genre has its high points.
But it’s summer now—time for a light touch by the pool. Books don’t need to be insipid to entertain. They can be beautifully written, or neatly contrived, to inspire good feelings. That a book expresses joy does not mean it is false or less than a worthy read.
Some of my favorites:
• Jan Karon’s series on a minister’s life in a fictional southern town, beginning with “At Home in Mitford,” portrays good people with light hearts and forgiving souls;
• Concord, Mass., author Gregory Maguire’s revisited fairy tales (the most famous being “Wicked”) includes new takes on Cinderella (“Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister”) and Snow White (“Mirror, Mirror”)—they’re whimsical and imaginative;
• New Hampshire author Nancy Clark’s “The Hills at Home” features a lively family of flaky relatives;
• Westborough’s Daniel Bruce Brown (disclosure: a friend) takes a farcical look at what the nation’s first Jewish president might encounter. “Roll Over, Hitler” won the 2010 fiction award from the Independent Publishers Association in May;
• Bill Bryson’s “A Walk in the Woods” is one funny travel story, drawn on his solo trip along the Appalachian Trail;
• “I Feel Bad About my Neck” is Nora Ephron’s wry look at aging: honest and witty;
• Vermont author Howard Mosher writes with warm humor about small town life—and baseball fans—in his books. My favorite, “Waiting for Teddy Williams”;
• A book need not be funny, either. Kent Haruf is a master storyteller, revealing the fears and failures of people with honesty and kindness. I loved “Plainsong” and its old bachelor farmers who take in a teenager who is pregnant and alone;
• Langston Hughes’ “Not Without Laughter” is a rare look inside the childhood and adolescence of a young black man growing up in the Midwest. It’s beautiful;
• Richard Russo’s “Empire Falls” and “Nobody’s Fool” are lasting portrayals of small towns and rich characters. I will always love these two works;
• “To Kill a Mockingbird.” If you somehow missed it in school, read it. If you’ve grown up since you first read it, read it again;
• Annie Proulx is a favorite writer of captivating short stories. Her novel, “The Shipping News,” is absorbing.
This is only a start. Enjoy that beach chair.
Area book clubs, events
Note to clubs: What was your top read in the last season? What’s coming up for Fall? Contact Ann Frantz by e-mailing ann.frantz@gmail.com, or see blog at Readitandreeap.blogspot.com (two ee’s is correct).
STURBRIDGE—Armchair Travelers chooses a general theme for each reading year. Last season’s, No Place Like Home: the New England Experience, included: “The Wordy Shipmates,” Sarah Vowell; “Widow’s War,” Sally Gunning; “That Old Cape Magic,” Richard Russo; “The Orchard,” Adele Crockett Robertson; “The Last Days of Dogtown,” Anita Diamant; “Looking Backward,” Edward Bellamy; and “Country of the Pointed Firs,” Sarah Orne Jewett.
Author Hallie Ephron visited in May at Old Sturbridge Village to discuss her new New England-based suspense novel, “Come and Find Me.” Joshua Hyde Public Library Director Becky Plimpton invites adults and young adult readers to read Padma Venkatraman’s “Climbing the Stairs” before an Aug. 29 discussion, with a demonstration of Indian cooking.
Summer reading begins July 5; selections posted in the library, and at www.readitandreeap.blogspot.com
HOLDEN—Betsy Johnson says, “Our group reads individually over the summer, and we spend the first meeting in September giving a ‘book report’ to the group.” Johnson previews and chooses the books and orders them for members so they’ll all have the same edition, eliminating reference confusion. Another difference: this group meets WEEKLY! “We always have a good discussion,” Johnson said. Members like the classics, and occasionally dip into an anthology to discuss a short story. Two favorites: Flannery O'Connor's “The Artificial Nigger,” and Eudora Welty's “Ladies in Springtime.” Also, Melville's “Benito Cereno.”
SUTTON—“We meet about every six weeks, so we will have another summer meeting, but we choose our book from month to month. Usually whoever is hosting the next book group picks the book, but that is our loosely held methodology. Just read: "The People of the Book" by Geraldine Brooks (author of the new “Caleb’s Crossing”). Sutton’s favorite books this year included: "Same Kind of Different as Me," Ron Hall and Denver Moore; and “The Help" or "1000 White Women"—both of which generated a lot of discussion. “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society” also generated a lot of discussion. At its next meeting, in late July, this group will discuss “The Girls with the Pearl Earring” and watch a movie of the book, starring Colin Firth.
GARDNER—The Heywood Library Reading Group meets year round, on the last Wednesday of each month at 4:30 p.m. Director Ann Young says attendance averages a dozen, although faces change with each book. They run by the calendar year, so they choose books in November, reviewing recommendations before voting. In February, everyone reads their own choice, then talks about that book. The group’s best discussion in 2011focused on Nell Painter's “The History of White People.” The funniest—although the subject matter was serious—was “The Help.”
Monday, June 13, 2011
Two events at a great Vermont bookstore!
I always like to let folks know when a writer is appearing at a bookstore or other location within a decent drive's distance. This double-header is a beaut!
Northshire Bookstore is a very big, very wonderful independent bookstore on Main Street in Manchester, Vt. Sure, it's a bit of a drive, but well worth visiting, and a must when you're in the area. It's rambling and chock full of good sections and selections; the children's books department is exceptional too. Plus - oh, joy - it has a neat cafe.
The multi-talented and well-known Roy Blount Jr. - humorist, reporter, actor, musician, author of books ranging from subjects such as the Pittsburgh Steelers to Robert E. Lee, and just what dogs are thinking, is a regular panelist on NPR's Wait, Wait . . . Don't Tell Me! ~ That alone lets anyone who hasn't heard Blount know that he's funny and quick-witted.
He'll be at the Northshire bookstore to present his newest book, Alphabetter Juice, a hilarious collection of English language riffs and raves.
A reception will be held at 6 p.m., before his appearance. There'll be light refreshments, coffee, and a cash bar in the Spiral Press Cafe. This event is limited to 40 people, and tickets are $15. Order online at the bookstore (www.northshire.com), stop by the store, or call 802-362-2200 or 800-437-3700. (Sessions like this help to pay for free programs, like the 7 p.m. talk).
Anyone can attend the free 7 p.m. session with Blount.
On the evening before - Friday - writer Jim Sheperd introduces his latest, You Think That's Bad, which follows Like You'd Understand, Anyway. He'll begin at 7 p.m. Shepard was awarded the Story Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Award. He returns to the Northshire with an even more wildly diverse collection of stories.
Says the bookstore rep.: "Like an expert curator, he populates the vastness of human experience, from its bizarre fringes and lonely, breathtaking pinnacles to the hopelessly mediocre and desperately below average, with brilliant scientists, reluctant soldiers, workaholic artists, female explorers, depraved murderers, and deluded losers, all wholly convincing and utterly fascinating."
Has to be cool, right?
Northshire Bookstore is a very big, very wonderful independent bookstore on Main Street in Manchester, Vt. Sure, it's a bit of a drive, but well worth visiting, and a must when you're in the area. It's rambling and chock full of good sections and selections; the children's books department is exceptional too. Plus - oh, joy - it has a neat cafe.
The multi-talented and well-known Roy Blount Jr. - humorist, reporter, actor, musician, author of books ranging from subjects such as the Pittsburgh Steelers to Robert E. Lee, and just what dogs are thinking, is a regular panelist on NPR's Wait, Wait . . . Don't Tell Me! ~ That alone lets anyone who hasn't heard Blount know that he's funny and quick-witted.
He'll be at the Northshire bookstore to present his newest book, Alphabetter Juice, a hilarious collection of English language riffs and raves.
A reception will be held at 6 p.m., before his appearance. There'll be light refreshments, coffee, and a cash bar in the Spiral Press Cafe. This event is limited to 40 people, and tickets are $15. Order online at the bookstore (www.northshire.com), stop by the store, or call 802-362-2200 or 800-437-3700. (Sessions like this help to pay for free programs, like the 7 p.m. talk).
Anyone can attend the free 7 p.m. session with Blount.
On the evening before - Friday - writer Jim Sheperd introduces his latest, You Think That's Bad, which follows Like You'd Understand, Anyway. He'll begin at 7 p.m. Shepard was awarded the Story Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Award. He returns to the Northshire with an even more wildly diverse collection of stories.
Says the bookstore rep.: "Like an expert curator, he populates the vastness of human experience, from its bizarre fringes and lonely, breathtaking pinnacles to the hopelessly mediocre and desperately below average, with brilliant scientists, reluctant soldiers, workaholic artists, female explorers, depraved murderers, and deluded losers, all wholly convincing and utterly fascinating."
Has to be cool, right?
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Another book event in western Mass.
Here's an event that writers, especially, may enjoy. But all book lovers, including book club members, might consider attending - this is sure to be an excellent session, as both featured writers have a lot of writing credits, and are active in teaching the writing life to others.
Straw Dog Writers Guild presents a Salon with local authors
Contact: Jacqueline Sheehan at jrsheehan@verizon.net
Sunday, June 26 at 3 p.m. in the Smith Conference Center, Smith College, Northampton
Local authors Suzanne Strempek Shea and Tom Shea, nationally known and recognized for their fiction and nonfiction works, will interview each other about writing while living under one roof. Interviews with the authors can be scheduled.
The Straw Dog Writers Guild announces a rare opportunity to hear a nationally recognized Western MA writing couple interview each other about their art and how they write while living under one roof. On Sunday, June 26th the Guild will host a fund-raising salon featuring Suzanne Strempek Shea and Tom Shea, who each draw from local life lived in western Massachusetts.
A suggested donation of $5 for seniors and students and $10 for general admission is requested. Proceeds provide support for this newly established writers¹ guild whose mission is to support writers and their organizations and provide access to the art and craft of writing in Western
Massachusetts.
Suzanne Strempek Shea, born and raised in western Massachusetts, won the 2000 New England Book Award, which recognizes a literary body of work's contribution to the region. She is the author of five novels: Selling the Light of Heaven, Hoopi Shoopi Donna, Lily of the Valley, Around Again, and Becoming Finola. She has also written three memoirs: Songs From a Lead-lined Room: Notes High and Low From My Journey Through Breast Cancer and Radiation; Shelf Life: Romance, Mystery, Drama and Other Page-Turning Adventures from a Year in a Bookstore; and Sundays in America; A Yearlong Road Trip in Search of Christian Faith. She is currently at work
on several new books.
Tom Shea is the son of Irish immigrants raised on Springfield's Hungry Hill. Nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 2005, he was awarded the New England Associated Press News Executive Award for the best local column in 2004, which the Boston Globe noted, "chronicles little-noticed acts of kindness and grace by everyday people." The year 2011 marks his 39th year writing
for Springfield Newspapers. He started as a sports writer and eventually covered the Boston Red Sox - a "pretty good job" in his own words, for a Yankee fan. He then worked as a general assignment reporter for thirteen years until being given the column.
Strempek Shea is a member of the faculty at the University of Southern Maine¹s Stonecoast MFA program in creative writing and is writer-in-residence at Bay Path College. Shea has taught journalism at Springfield, Holyoke Community College and Elms Colleges. Both writers have
numerous published works of freelance journalism and fiction.
Straw Dog Writers Guild presents a Salon with local authors
Contact: Jacqueline Sheehan at jrsheehan@verizon.net
Sunday, June 26 at 3 p.m. in the Smith Conference Center, Smith College, Northampton
Local authors Suzanne Strempek Shea and Tom Shea, nationally known and recognized for their fiction and nonfiction works, will interview each other about writing while living under one roof. Interviews with the authors can be scheduled.
The Straw Dog Writers Guild announces a rare opportunity to hear a nationally recognized Western MA writing couple interview each other about their art and how they write while living under one roof. On Sunday, June 26th the Guild will host a fund-raising salon featuring Suzanne Strempek Shea and Tom Shea, who each draw from local life lived in western Massachusetts.
A suggested donation of $5 for seniors and students and $10 for general admission is requested. Proceeds provide support for this newly established writers¹ guild whose mission is to support writers and their organizations and provide access to the art and craft of writing in Western
Massachusetts.
Suzanne Strempek Shea, born and raised in western Massachusetts, won the 2000 New England Book Award, which recognizes a literary body of work's contribution to the region. She is the author of five novels: Selling the Light of Heaven, Hoopi Shoopi Donna, Lily of the Valley, Around Again, and Becoming Finola. She has also written three memoirs: Songs From a Lead-lined Room: Notes High and Low From My Journey Through Breast Cancer and Radiation; Shelf Life: Romance, Mystery, Drama and Other Page-Turning Adventures from a Year in a Bookstore; and Sundays in America; A Yearlong Road Trip in Search of Christian Faith. She is currently at work
on several new books.
Tom Shea is the son of Irish immigrants raised on Springfield's Hungry Hill. Nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 2005, he was awarded the New England Associated Press News Executive Award for the best local column in 2004, which the Boston Globe noted, "chronicles little-noticed acts of kindness and grace by everyday people." The year 2011 marks his 39th year writing
for Springfield Newspapers. He started as a sports writer and eventually covered the Boston Red Sox - a "pretty good job" in his own words, for a Yankee fan. He then worked as a general assignment reporter for thirteen years until being given the column.
Strempek Shea is a member of the faculty at the University of Southern Maine¹s Stonecoast MFA program in creative writing and is writer-in-residence at Bay Path College. Shea has taught journalism at Springfield, Holyoke Community College and Elms Colleges. Both writers have
numerous published works of freelance journalism and fiction.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
For western Mass. book clubs
Put this one on your calendar!
On June 12, at 2 p.m., Bay Path College's Longbridge campus will host an event for those who love books and are in bookclubs.
Follow this link to find out more: http://www.baypath.edu/NewsandEvents/EventsCalendar/June2011/BookClubEvent.aspx
Author Hallie Ephron is guest speaker.
This sounds like a blast, and I hope we find more events like this one in other areas of the state!
On June 12, at 2 p.m., Bay Path College's Longbridge campus will host an event for those who love books and are in bookclubs.
Follow this link to find out more: http://www.baypath.edu/NewsandEvents/EventsCalendar/June2011/BookClubEvent.aspx
Author Hallie Ephron is guest speaker.
This sounds like a blast, and I hope we find more events like this one in other areas of the state!
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Some favorite feel-good reads
One of the biggest complaints, when book selection time comes around, is that a book is too dark to enjoy. Depressing books, it seems, are only making readers feel bad.
While we all have a different opinion about bleak reading (I’m thinking of Cormac McCarthy’s haunting take on post-Apocalyptic America in “The Road”), members also can’t agree about what makes them happy. Some wouldn’t touch chick lit with a Nook, while others find good people and good endings just too sugary.
Isn’t that what a book club is all about, though? Being exposed to reading that one wouldn’t ordinarily pick up, and discovering a few wonderful writers we would have otherwise missed? Some clubs make a point of consciously going down that road, seeking out cult writers, first-time authors, or relative unknowns. Others define themselves as mystery book clubs, sci-fi readers or history clubs. It’s all good, really. Every genre has its high points.
In early June, AbeBooks listed 25 Feel-Good Reads on its web site (where you can also find 50 books for 11-year-olds and a selection of bloggers). The editors did their homework. The list includes such classics as Tom Robbins’ “Still Life with Woodpecker,” Fannie Flagg’s “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café,” Truman Capote’s “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” Salinger’s “Franny and Zooey” and Nevil Shute’s “A Town Like Alice.” Yes, this author of “On the Beach” could also write of joy.
The list also includes more contemporary finds, like Garth Stein’s wonderful man-dog friendship, “The Art of Racing in the Rain,” Helen Fielding’s “Bridget Jones’ Diary” and Ann Patchett’s “Bel Canto.”
Books don’t have to be insipid to make readers happy. They can be beautifully written, or neatly contrived, to produce a good feeling. A book that makes one happy may well come from an author who’s feeling good (at least some of the time). That it finds joy in life does not mean it is false or less than a worthy read.
Some of my favorites:
• Jan Karon’s series on a minister’s life in the fictional southern town of Mitford, beginning with “At Home in Mitford,” portrays good people with light hearts and kind souls;
• Concord, Mass., author Gregory Maguire’s series of reshaped fairy tales (the most famous being “Wicked”) includes a new look at Cinderella (“Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister”) and Snow White (“Mirror, Mirror”); they are wonderfully whimsical and imaginative, always fascinating;
• New Hampshire author Nancy Clark wrote “The Hills at Home,” an enjoyable visit into a family of flaky relatives in close quarters with each other;
• Westborough’s Daniel Bruce Brown (a friend, I must tell you) recently published a farcical take on what the nation’s first Jewish president might encounter. “Roll Over, Hitler” even won the 2010 fiction award from the Independent Publishers Association in May;
• Bill Bryson’s “A Walk in the Woods” is one of the funniest travel stories I’ve read, drawn on his solo trip along the Appalachian Trail;
• Don’t forget to read “I Feel Bad About my Neck,” Nora Ephron’s wry look at aging; it’s honest and very funny;
• Howard Mosher, a Vermont author, writes warmly and humorously about life in small towns—and among baseball fans—in his books. My favorite, “Waiting for Teddy Williams”;
• A book doesn’t have to be funny to be a feel-good book, either. Kent Haruf is a master storyteller, revealing the fears and failures of people with honesty and kindness. I loved “Plainsong” and its old bachelor farmers—brothers Harold and Raymond McPheron—who take in a teenager who is pregnant and alone;
• Langston Hughes’ “Not Without Laughter” is simply beautiful, a rare look inside the childhood and adolescence of a young black man growing up in the Midwest. It’s semi-autobiographical;
• Oh, how I love Richard Russo. His “Empire Falls” and “Nobody’s Fool” are lasting portrayals of small towns and rich characters. I will always love these two works;
• “To Kill a Mockingbird.” If you somehow missed it in school, read it. If you’ve grown up since you first read it, read it again;
• Annie Proulx is a favorite writer. Her “The Shipping News” was atypical, but a satisfying read.
This list is by no means a complete listing of my own favorites; it contains some that I recall best. Share your favorites here as well.
While we all have a different opinion about bleak reading (I’m thinking of Cormac McCarthy’s haunting take on post-Apocalyptic America in “The Road”), members also can’t agree about what makes them happy. Some wouldn’t touch chick lit with a Nook, while others find good people and good endings just too sugary.
Isn’t that what a book club is all about, though? Being exposed to reading that one wouldn’t ordinarily pick up, and discovering a few wonderful writers we would have otherwise missed? Some clubs make a point of consciously going down that road, seeking out cult writers, first-time authors, or relative unknowns. Others define themselves as mystery book clubs, sci-fi readers or history clubs. It’s all good, really. Every genre has its high points.
In early June, AbeBooks listed 25 Feel-Good Reads on its web site (where you can also find 50 books for 11-year-olds and a selection of bloggers). The editors did their homework. The list includes such classics as Tom Robbins’ “Still Life with Woodpecker,” Fannie Flagg’s “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café,” Truman Capote’s “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” Salinger’s “Franny and Zooey” and Nevil Shute’s “A Town Like Alice.” Yes, this author of “On the Beach” could also write of joy.
The list also includes more contemporary finds, like Garth Stein’s wonderful man-dog friendship, “The Art of Racing in the Rain,” Helen Fielding’s “Bridget Jones’ Diary” and Ann Patchett’s “Bel Canto.”
Books don’t have to be insipid to make readers happy. They can be beautifully written, or neatly contrived, to produce a good feeling. A book that makes one happy may well come from an author who’s feeling good (at least some of the time). That it finds joy in life does not mean it is false or less than a worthy read.
Some of my favorites:
• Jan Karon’s series on a minister’s life in the fictional southern town of Mitford, beginning with “At Home in Mitford,” portrays good people with light hearts and kind souls;
• Concord, Mass., author Gregory Maguire’s series of reshaped fairy tales (the most famous being “Wicked”) includes a new look at Cinderella (“Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister”) and Snow White (“Mirror, Mirror”); they are wonderfully whimsical and imaginative, always fascinating;
• New Hampshire author Nancy Clark wrote “The Hills at Home,” an enjoyable visit into a family of flaky relatives in close quarters with each other;
• Westborough’s Daniel Bruce Brown (a friend, I must tell you) recently published a farcical take on what the nation’s first Jewish president might encounter. “Roll Over, Hitler” even won the 2010 fiction award from the Independent Publishers Association in May;
• Bill Bryson’s “A Walk in the Woods” is one of the funniest travel stories I’ve read, drawn on his solo trip along the Appalachian Trail;
• Don’t forget to read “I Feel Bad About my Neck,” Nora Ephron’s wry look at aging; it’s honest and very funny;
• Howard Mosher, a Vermont author, writes warmly and humorously about life in small towns—and among baseball fans—in his books. My favorite, “Waiting for Teddy Williams”;
• A book doesn’t have to be funny to be a feel-good book, either. Kent Haruf is a master storyteller, revealing the fears and failures of people with honesty and kindness. I loved “Plainsong” and its old bachelor farmers—brothers Harold and Raymond McPheron—who take in a teenager who is pregnant and alone;
• Langston Hughes’ “Not Without Laughter” is simply beautiful, a rare look inside the childhood and adolescence of a young black man growing up in the Midwest. It’s semi-autobiographical;
• Oh, how I love Richard Russo. His “Empire Falls” and “Nobody’s Fool” are lasting portrayals of small towns and rich characters. I will always love these two works;
• “To Kill a Mockingbird.” If you somehow missed it in school, read it. If you’ve grown up since you first read it, read it again;
• Annie Proulx is a favorite writer. Her “The Shipping News” was atypical, but a satisfying read.
This list is by no means a complete listing of my own favorites; it contains some that I recall best. Share your favorites here as well.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)