NEWS4U JULY 2022 | BOOKS
BOOK CLUB
WITH ADAM & SAM MORRIS
i
More great summer reading recommendations from the owners of Your Brother's Bookstore in downtown Evansville THE TWILIGHT ROAD by Werner Herzog
THE NOVELIST by Jordan Castro
poem, part dream, Herzog
Novelist follows a young man
immortalizes Hiroo Onoda,
over the course of a single
the famous Japanese soldier
morning as he tries, and fails,
who defended Lubang
to write an autographical
Island in the Philippines
novel. Something as simple
for decades after WWII.
as making coffee can cause
With weeks turning to
the protagonist to remember
months, months to years,
an embarrassing Instagram
years to decades - time
post about the ethics of
itself becomes surreal as
having children that sparked
Herzog uses his hypnotic,
rage, or he might get lost in
A hilarious debut novel, The
Part documentary, part
unimitated style to imagine
the idea that doing dishes
what Onoda’s life would have been like while fighting his
is both, at once, profound and ordinary. Between his own quotidian
fictitious war. The result is something extraordinarily unique, a
rituals, his own inner thoughts and doom scrolling Twitter, this is a
glowing meditation on the purpose and meaning we give our
novel that focuses on the many small things people do to have a life
own lives.
of stability.
KAIJU PRESERVATION SOCIETY by John Scalzi
HOW TO TELL A STORY by The Moth
What if Godzilla was real and
and How to Tell a Story is
there was a multinational
an incredibly useful guide
organization devoted to
to storytelling that takes
making sure that other
an approach he hasn’t
giant monsters stay in their
seen before. The Moth is a
own dimension? John
multicity storytelling event
Scalzi continues his streak
where a number of people
of smart, cynical prose that
stand in front of a crowd and
simultaneously celebrates and
tell a true story from their life.
pokes fun at a genre he loves.
It’s that simple. This isn’t a
Written during the beginning
book about writing (although
of the pandemic by an author
Sam is a sucker for stories,
the advice is applicable).
procrastinating on a different project, it’s as much a palate cleanser for
It walks you through searching your memories for a story that is
the reader as it apparently was for the author. In Scalzi’s words, “We
impactful and transformative, then developing it to be spoken aloud
all need a pop song from time to time, particularly after a stretch of
in a set amount of time. In short, Sam’s already re-reading it.
darkness."
36 | JULY 2022
• www.evansvillemediagroup.com
