BookPage August 2016

AMERICA’S BOOK REVIEW

COMPLIMENTS OF YOUR LIBRARY

Fresh faces in fiction 2016’s breakout debut The saga of Patty Hearst

LIANE

MORIARTY One moment fractures a lifelong friendship in the suspenseful new novel from the author of Big Little Lies​

AUG 2016

Key concepts Mnemonic devices timelines and more!

A middle school study guide series from the BRAINS behind BRAIN QUEST ! ®

bars , an d yo u cu t each int brot her o 5 piece 1 piece fro s. Yo u giv m th e fir e yo ur lit yo ur sis st candy tle ter 2 pie bar, an d ces fro m yo u give How mu th e seco ch of a nd cand wh ole ca y bar. give aw ndy bar ay? did yo u

SUBTRA CTING F

Yo u gave 1 of the 5 pieces of candy ba th e fir st r to yo ur brot her 1 . = 5 Yo u gave 2 of the 5 pieces of bar to yo th e seco ur sis ter 2 nd cand = -. y

5

Now, ad d them tog ether

EXAMPL E:

PU T TH IT U ER E P !

5

stays th same , an e d yo u su bt ract th nu me e

5 (The denominator

stays the same, an d you add the numerator s.)

Because

r to ad d or su bt ra deno mi na ct fractio to rs , yo u ns wi th jus t have different th e same to make ! We ca th eir de n do th at no mi nato deno mi na by fin din rs to rs . g th e LC M of th e How to ad d or su bt ract fr actio ns wi th unlik e deno mi Fin d th e nato rs: LC M of bo th deno th is th e mi nato rs LEAST CO . (S ome MMON DE teac hers fo r sh or ca NOMINA t.)

TOR, or LC ll D

bo th cand y bars ar same siz e th e e an d ar e cu t int same nu o th e mb er of pie ces, yo u th e deno keep mi nato r as 5 an nu merato d ad d th rs to ge e t th e an sw er of 3 YOU CA N -.

RE ME MB ER WI TH Denomi na 5 TH IS RH YM tor’s the sam E: e— ke ep it in Add up the the top, simpli fy, and sto game! p!

1.

EXAMPL E:

44

MBERS G MIXED NU CONVERTINER ACTIONS and IMPROP FR IMP ROP ER ED NUMBER TO AN GE A MIX Remember! To CHAN then add. first mult iply and FRACTION , you will 1

an er 3 5 to ge the mixed numb EXAMPLE: To chan 3 x 5 = 15 and we first calculate 16 . improper fraction, is tion 5 the improper frac then + 1 , so that

rator rator Sometimes, the nume dividing the nume SIMPLIFY them by facto rs. You can on facto r. Some by the greatest comm tor and the deno mina lifying,” or “simp ,” CING “ CROSS-REDU teachers call this it, it’s a shor tcut!

Whatever you call “ CANCELING.” 3 6 2 is the - can be simplified to 5 because

EXAMPLE:

I PLY

fraction

calculate: mixed numb er, we

23 ÷ 8 = 2 R7

10

GCF of

er is , so the mixed numb

REMAI N DER. “R” STAN DS FOR

23 8

6 and 10.

3 6 6 ÷2 = - =10 10 ÷ 2 5

BER, TO A MIXED NUM ROP ER FRACTION self: To CHAN GE AN IMP minator. Ask your rato r by the deno you divide the nume tor go into the s does the deno mina “How many time ?” over left have t remainder do I numerato r? Wha ge the improper EXAMPLE: To chan

2 - + -1 5

4 FRACTIONShave common Th e LCIN M ofG5 an SIMPLIFY 4 is mina 20. tor will andd deno

D AD

MULT

8 7 --1 9 9 = - (T he de no mi nato 9 r

rato rs .)

ADDIN and SUBT FRACTG RACTIN IO N S G wit DENOM INATORh DIFFERENT In orde S

1

2 3 :5 + -= -

COOL DENOMINATOR!

RACTIO NS

Th e same idea appli es to su must be bt raction th e same - th e de (bo th wh no mi nato order to oles must rs su bt ract. be th e sa me size) in

to a

7

.

28

fraction, alway s that is an improper answer.

If you get an answer number for your final convert it into a mixed off point s if you don’t!

Some teachers take

EXAMPLE:

20 8 of

to can be simplified

20 and 8 is 4.

5 ÷4 =20 = 20 - 8 8÷4 2

5 2

because the GCF

you to Most teachers want if simpl ify your answers habit! possi ble, so get in the

TIONS ADDING FRACtions minators together, the deno frac If we wan t to add . must be the same

EXAMPLE:

3 4 1 =- +5 5 5

same and you add minator stay s the y In the sum, the deno two iden tical cand example, you have 43 the numerato r. For

42

It’s like giving Your Kids a perfect set of notes to supplement what they learn in class!

WORKMAN and BR AIN QUEST are registered trademarks of Workman Publishing Co., Inc. BIG FAT NOTEBOOK is a trademark of Workman Publishing Co., Inc.

45

contents

AUGUST 2016

columns 04 04 05 06 08 10 10 11

12

Lifestyles Well Read Library Reads Audio Whodunit Romance Cooking Book Clubs

Blockbuster Australian author Liane Moriarty explores the impact of one unexpected moment in her new novel, Truly Madly Guilty.

Liane Moriarty photos © Uber photography

book reviews

features 14 15 16 17 19 20 27 29

on the cover

22 FICTION

Jeffrey Toobin Alix Hawley Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney New voices Parenting Education Plum Johnson Kelly Barnhill

meet the author 18 Amy Krouse Rosenthal

t o p p i c k : To the Bright Edge of

26 NONFICTION

t o p p i c k : I’m Supposed to

the World by Eowyn Ivey

Protect You from All This

by Nadja Spiegelman

The Unseen World by Liz Moore

Patient H.M. by Luke Dittrich

The Senility of Vladimir P.

by Michael Honig I Will Send Rain by Rae Meadows

Known and Strange Things

by Teju Cole

Harmony by Carolyn Parkhurst

For the Love of Money by Sam Polk

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

They Left Us Everything

by Plum Johnson

The Muse by Jessie Burton Leaving Lucy Pear by Anna Solomon Another Brooklyn

by Jacqueline Woodson

28 TEEN

t o p p i c k : Gemini

by Sonya Mukherjee

The Regulars by Georgia Clark

All We Have Left by Wendy Mills

Heroes of the Frontier

by Dave Eggers Still Here by Lara Vapnyar How to Party with an Infant

by Kaui Hart Hemmings The Bones of Paradise by Jonis Agee

What is her husband’s family hiding?

Riverkeep by Martin Stewart Enter Title Here by Rahul Kanakia

30 CHILDREN’S

t o p p i c k : Lucy by Randy Cecil

The Book That Matters Most

by Ann Hood

Coyote Moon by Maria Gianferrari Seven and a Half Tons of Steel

by Janet Nolan

MISSING PIECES HEATHER GUDENKAUF

Click Here to Start by Denis Markell Makoons by Louise Erdrich

31 Kenard Pak

The Ministry of SUITs

by Paul Gamble

A M E R I C A’ S B O O K R E V I E W PUBLISHER Michael A. Zibart

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

CHILDREN’S BOOKS OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Allison

Cat Acree

Hammond

ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER

ASSISTANT EDITOR

CONTRIBUTOR

Julia Steele

Lily McLemore

Roger Bishop

EDITOR

ASSISTANT EDITOR

PRODUCTION MANAGER

Hilli Levin

Penny Childress

MANAGING EDITOR

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

EDITORIAL INTERN

Trisha Ping

Sukey Howard

Rachel Hoge

Lynn L. Green

Elizabeth Grace Herbert

ADVERTISING OPERATIONS Sada Stipe

MARKETING Mary Claire Zibart

CONTROLLER Sharon Kozy

EDITORIAL POLICY BookPage is a selection guide for new books. Our editors evaluate and select for review the best books published in a variety of categories.

Only books we highly recommend are featured. BookPage is editorially independent and never accepts payment for editorial coverage.

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2016-06-22 2:41 PM

columns

LIFESTYLES

WELL READ

B Y S U S A N N A H F E LT S

BY ROBERT WEIBEZAHL

The digital landscape Good news: These days, when you’re in need of a website to promote your brand, sell your stuff or display your work, affordable options abound. Bad news: Confusion over a multitude of platforms and decisions about content can be a stumbling block.

In Create Your Own Website the Easy Way (Ilex Press, $19.99, 176 pages, ISBN 9781781572900), Alannah Moore guides readers through the process, laying out

form. He explains popular drawing techniques— with illustrations from actual artists’ sketchbooks—while giving plenty of attention to different styles such as natural, realist, humorous and abstract. Though it is less of a straightforward how-to than some other drawing manuals, The Urban Sketchbook includes an educational overview of the available materials and other helpful tips to get creative juices flowing.

the pros and cons of platforms (WordPress, Squarespace, Weebly, Shopify, WooCommerce) with testimonials from small business owners who use them. Even better, she also delivers a crash course in graphic design and writing for the web, with tips for making videos and winning the social media and search engine games. At first glance, the pages and layout may seem busy, but soon I understood that all of the graphics are just screenshots of web pages serving as helpful examples. Though guides like this will inevitably grow dated as technology churns on, Moore’s is one I’m glad to have on hand while thinking about my own web presence.

TOP PICK IN LIFESTYLES

DRAWN IN A budding artist or regular doodler may feel inspiration strike while perusing The Urban Sketchbook (Barron’s, $22.99, 144 pages, ISBN 9781438008097), in which illustrator Sergi Cámara identifies social media as the force behind a rise in awareness of the long and influential history of sketching. Now that so many artists are posting their sketches and daily drawing exercises online, more people are getting inspired to pick up pen and paper and give it a try.

Cámara looks at sketching as both a journalistic practice and an art

4

Being prepared, like any scout knows, will make your camping trip a success—no matter how luxe or minimal your approach. And if you heed the suggestions of the gorgeous Camp Sunset: A Modern Camper’s Guide to the Great Outdoors (Oxmoor House, $24.95, 240 pages, ISBN 9780848747084), you almost can’t go wrong. From picking a tent and campsite to packing essential kitchen utensils, building a campfire and layering items in a cooler, the first pages serve as a photo-rich and beautifully designed primer. But the highest points come in the second half: the section titled “The Best Camp Food Ever” offers tips on cooking by stove or grill, washing dishes in the wild and even baking. Ambitious? Perhaps. But I’ll be happy to try their Breakfast Shakshouka or Camp Pizza with Sausage and Fontina—tent-side or at home.

The “Fun in Camp” chapter is packed with adorable activities and crafts to keep kids feeling the good nature vibes. There’s even a pullout glow-in-the-dark constellation poster for stargazers and a list of 150 campfire songs for the playlist-maker. Just browsing this book made me a happy camper, ever more eager to pack up the car and head out there, ASAP.

Recalling a golden era of magazine writing “Editors work without applause,” writes Terry McDonell in The Accidental Life: An Editor’s Notes on Writing and Writers (Knopf, $26.95, 384 pages, ISBN 9781101946718). It is not meant as a complaint, and no one should know its truth better than he. For some 40 years, McDonell worked at a slew of America’s top magazines—Rolling Stone, Newsweek, Esquire, Sports Illustrated and Outside among them— where he shepherded the work of many of our finest writers. The editor’s job required much more than a talent for shaping a good lede (which McDonell clearly has). It demanded equal parts diplomacy, ego-stroking, discretion and good-natured patience. But, as this captivating memoir makes clear, the reward was lasting friendships with some of the most talented, if idiosyncratic, people who ever fashioned words into unforgettable magazine stories.

That list of friends is a virtual who’s who of the 1970s and ’80s— perhaps the crowning era of magazine journalism: Hunter S. Thompson, Tom McGuane, Tom Wolfe, Jann Wenner, Richard Price, James Salter, P.J. O’Rourke . . . McDonell worked with them all, taught them what he knew and learned a lot from them in the bargain. Appropriately, The Accidental Life comprises short, magazine story-length chapters (for each of which McDonell, charmingly, provides the word count in parentheses) that recall these working friendships through colorful anecdotes of time spent together, be it drinking in New York, pitching Hollywood studios or fishing in Montana. These stories are laced with insights into the profession and provide a win-

dow for the uninitiated into the workings of magazines, particularly in the pre-digital age, when print was king. (McDonell recalls how top writers could demand $4 or $5 a word for their work back in those heady days.

Now magazine writers are lucky to get a dollar a word—a major decline, even before taking 30 years of inflation into account.)

Despite having spent much of his time editing others’ work, McDonell is himself an engaging writer. His enthusiasm for his life’s work percolates on nearly every page of the book. “For all magazine editors, there are exhilarating moments that no one else can know,” he writes, “like when you start reading and you know just from the first sentence that it will make your mix and give your issue a subtext that will echo how smart you want it to be. . . . Editors do many different things and with wildly varying styles. The editing jobs I had were never only about the words; and for some brilliant editors, and at some spectacular magazines, it’s not about the words at all, and that’s fine. Wit and clever observation are never enough. You need images that work on more than one level. And real art and fine-tuning and polish and nuance and finish carpentry and sharp display copy and surprising (but readable) typography. In other words, you have to make all those boxes perfect before the monkeys can start jumping out of them.”

The Accidental Life is one of those surprising books that, at first glance, seem specialized, but soon prove to be all-embracing and thoroughly entertaining. Where else can you have close encounters with Steve Jobs, Jimmy Buffett and Kurt Vonnegut? McDonell’s life has been a series of such encounters, and he shares them with the inquisitiveness and magnanimity that clearly served him so well as an editor.

Selected from nominations made by library staff across the country, here are the 10 books that librarians can’t wait to share with readers in August.

#1

Every family has its secrets…

A GREAT RECKONING by Louise Penny Minotaur, ISBN 9781250022134

An old map leads Armand Gamache to some dark secrets in Penny’s gripping new mystery, set in the tiny Quebec town of Three Pines.

Don’t miss the brand-new novel from the popular Fatal series!

THE COUPLE NEXT DOOR by Shari Lapena

Pamela Dorman, ISBN 9780735221086 A dinner party ends in a tragedy that exposes the flaws in a marriage in this twisted domestic suspense debut from an award-winning literary voice.

WATCHING EDIE by Camilla Way

NAL, ISBN 9781101991633 At 33, Edie is pregnant, single and overwhelmed. When her former best friend re-enters her life with an offer of support, is it a lifeline, or a nightmare?

THE CITY BAKER’S GUIDE TO COUNTRY LIVING by Louise Miller

Pamela Dorman, ISBN 9781101981207 After pastry chef Olivia Rawlings watches her career go down in flames, she escapes to small-town Vermont and finds more excitement than she bargained for.

THE DOLLHOUSE by Fiona Davis

Dutton, ISBN 9781101984994 Enter the lush, secretive world of New York City’s Barbizon Hotel for Women in the 1950s, where secretary Darby McLaughlin joins a group of women hungry for success.

THE BOOK THAT MATTERS MOST by Ann Hood

Norton, ISBN 9780393241655 A mother and daughter—each at a crossroads of life—find unexpected sanctuary in books in the latest from the bestselling author of The Knitting Circle. Read our review on page 25.

www.HQNBooks.com • www.MarieForce.com

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Get your copy in print & ebook today!

2016-06-07 6:18 PM

Can she leave behind all the things she thought she wanted to discover who she really is?

ARROWOOD by Laura McHugh

Spiegel & Grau, ISBN 9780812996395 This second novel from the author of The Weight of Blood is a chilling gothic mystery set on the banks of the Mississippi River.

BEHIND CLOSED DOORS by B.A. Paris

St. Martin’s, ISBN 9781250121004 Wealthy Jack and elegant Grace seem like the perfect couple.

But the truth of their marriage is far more complicated in this debut psychological thriller.

FIRST STAR I SEE TONIGHT by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Morrow, ISBN 9780062405616 Phillips continues her bestselling Chicago Stars series with the story of Piper Dove, a private detective whose first assignment is to follow former quarterback Cooper Graham.

“For great storytelling and beautifully drawn characters, enter the world of Robyn Carr.”

—Susan Elizabeth Phillips, New York Times bestselling author

DIE LIKE AN EAGLE by Donna Andrews

Minotaur, ISBN 9781250078551 Small-town blacksmith Meg Langslow appears in another wacky and wild mystery—this time, her sons’ baseball coach just might be in a killer’s crosshairs.

LibraryReads is a recommendation program that highlights librarians’ favorite books published this month. For more information, visit libraryreads.org.

www.MIRABooks.com • www.RobynCarr.com

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2016-06-09 12:14 PM

Hit the road with Macmillan Audio! “ Scottoline writes riveting thrillers that keep me up all night, with plots that twist and turn.”

—Harlan Coben READ BY REBECCA LOWMAN

“A hair-raising debut.”

—Mary Kubica, bestselling author of The Good Girl

columns

READ BY GROVER GARDNER

“As moving as it is gripping.

A winner on all fronts.”

—Booklist (starred review) READ BY EDOARDO BALLERINI The search for truth and justice after Serial

READ BY THE AUTHOR “A grittier, Eastern European, more grown-up The Fault in Our Stars.”

—Eowyn Ivey, author of The Snow Child READ BY DAN BITTNER

Visit www.macmillanaudio.com/usofaudiobooks to find the perfect audiobook for every destination

6

BY SUKEY HOWARD

Master of espionage Even when I’m totally immersed in an atmospheric Alan Furst novel, I can always hear the faint hum of Carly Simon singing “Nobody Does It Better.” That’s because nobody does World War II espionage better than Furst. A Hero of France (Simon & Schuster Audio, 8 hours), his latest, performed with perfect pace and polish by Daniel Gerroll, begins on March 10, 1941, when the City of Light was shrouded in blackout curtains and the Nazi occupiers ter-

READ BY GEORGIA MAGUIRE

“Gardner’s performance is seamless as he delivers an exhilarating listening experience.”

—AudioFile on Who Let the Dog Out?, Earphones Award winner

AUDIO

rorized Parisians with impunity. We meet Mathieu, the nom de guerre of our “hero,” as he waits to hear if the British airmen he aided have made it safely across the border. Mathieu and his band of brothers and brave sisters form a cell dedicated to getting these much-needed men back to England. Cool, competent, someone you’d really like to have a drink with, Mathieu has enlisted the help of a fascinating group, including a Sorbonne professor, an attractive socialite, a fresh-faced lycée student, a woman who runs an occult store and more. Capturing mood and detail, Furst takes us into that time and place and keeps us in its thrall.

BURN, BABY, BURN Anyone worried that Spenser, Robert Parker’s ever-popular, iconic, tough, tender Boston P.I., wouldn’t fare well when Ace Atkins took over the series can rest easy.

Spenser still puts on the gloves and works out at the gym, is still the quintessential wise-guy quipper who banters with ceaseless bravado, and he still adores the brilliant, beautiful Susan Silverman, who still adores him. And, yes, Hawk is on the scene, as is Pearl the Wonder Dog. Joe Mantegna, long the voice and spirit of Spenser and his buddies, is still the ever-­competent,

unflappable narrator, making the continuity from Parker to Atkins seem seamless. Listeners know from the getgo who the bad guys are in Slow Burn (Random House Audio, 6.5 hours), Atkins’ fifth in the series.

The fun is in following Spenser, hired to investigate a suspicious fire in a South End Catholic church that killed three of Boston’s beloved firefighters, as he searches for the unknown arsonists, irritates old enemies, gets into a few knuckle-​ busters and watches his own apartment go up in flames. This satisfying Spenser is super summer entertainment.

TOP PICK IN AUDIO Why does re-entering society seem more troublesome for so many returning vets than enduring the trauma of combat? That’s the difficult question Sebastian Junger tackles in Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging (Hachette Audio, 3 hours). His brilliantly crafted, provocative mosaic of history, anthropology, psychology and memoir shows us that war may be hell, but it’s a hell shared by your platoon mates if you’re a soldier, by your neighbors if you’re a civilian under siege. In hellish times, people band together, share resources and sacrifice for the good of the community in the same way early ancestors did for thousands of years. A need for closeness, group identity and altruism runs deep in our collective DNA, a need that was filled by the “bonds of hardship” that came during the Blitz or combat or in an outpost in Afghanistan—the bonds so often missing in our comfort-filled but alienating modern society. Junger reads with intensity and compassion.

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columns

WHODUNIT

BY BRUCE TIERNEY

The evolving Hydra of crime and its investigation Peter Robinson’s latest thriller, When the Music’s Over (Morrow, $25.99, 432 pages, ISBN 9780062394781), finds beloved Detective Superintendent Alan Banks investigating a charge of sexual assault lodged against a popular entertainer. The alleged incident took place some 50 years

missing, so he must piece together stray bits of evidence as best he can. Compounding the issue is the fact that his right-hand woman, Detective Inspector Annie Cabbot, is embroiled in the investigation of an equally lurid case: A teenage girl was abducted and raped, then thrown out of a van to the side of

ago, and the entertainer, now in his 80s, vehemently denies the charges. Pursuing the case will prove challenging for Banks, as the original case files have gone

the road, where she was picked up by another driver who proved to be anything but a savior. Either case would make a good standalone novel, but the juxtaposition of the

New York Times bestselling author

BRENDA NOVAK

delivers a gripping new story of family secrets.

Her killer may be someone he loves…

“The best romantic thriller I’ve read.”

—San Francisco Book Review on The Secret Sister

www.MIRABooks.com

8 16_237_BookPage_SecretsSheKept.indd 1

www.BrendaNovak.com

them apart since the decades-old case and its horrifying kidnapping. modern counterpart makes for a Glen’s enigcompelling look at the evolution of matic final crime and its investigation over the words to her past 50 years. as they were separated HEADS ON A ROLL were “Say The hands-down best mystery nothing!” And although her captors novels of the past decade have interrogate her on a daily basis, she come out of Scandinavia, and Anne obeys his command. As the chapHolt’s Dead Joker (Scribner, $26, ters unfold, alternating between 336 pages, ISBN 9781501123269) Clara’s past and her present-day does nothing to break that string. incarceration, the reader begins to Holt is Norway’s #1 bestselling get the sense that she is at once a female crime writer, and Jo Nesbø victim and a perpetrator (or at the dubbed her “the godmother of very least an enabler) of a human modern Norwegian crime fiction.” trafficking organization. But as in Edgy Detective Inspector Hanne the best suspense novels, there are Wilhelmsen returns for her fifth mysteries within mysteries, and all adventure, this time investigating is not what it seems—not to Clara, the decapitation death of the wife and definitely not to the reader. of a chief public prosecutor. NatuTOP PICK IN MYSTERY rally the new widower falls under immediate suspicion; after all, the Of all the mystery books set in husband always does it, right? He post-revolution Laos, in which in turn lays the blame on a man the protagonist is a sorta-retired he prosecuted years before, but coroner periodically inhabited by a witness comes forth to say that the spirit of a long-dead shaman, he saw that man commit suicide Colin Cotterill’s Dr. Siri books are some days earlier. Hmm. But then found right at the front of the pack. a remarkably similar fate befalls a Actually, they constitute the entire journalist at an Oslo newspaper, pack, now 11 strong. The latest inand while one beheading may be stallment, I Shot the Buddha (Soho an aberration, a second in as many Crime, $26.95, 352 pages, ISBN weeks suggests something more 9781616957223), finds the elderly sinister. Originally published in (in body only) Dr. Siri tasked with Norway in 1999, Dead Joker is just helping a Buddhist monk slip across now finding its way stateside, and the Mekong River to Thailand. therefore some of the more modThere is some danger, and certainly ern crime-solving paraphernalia some illegality, associated with this and techniques are not at hand. endeavor, but Siri has never been The story is no less compelling for one to shy away from conflict, parthat and is indeed a first-rate thrill- ticularly when there’s an opportunity to put one over on his annoying er through and through.

Communist government “minders.”

WHO IS SHE? Aided and abetted by his wife, the kindly yet wickedly clever Madame Easily the most disturbing and Daeng, Siri navigates the metaunsettling book I have read this phorical minefields where religion, year is Rena Olsen’s debut novel, spirituality and government (particThe Girl Before (Putnam, $15, 320 ularly the anti-religion Communist pages, ISBN 9781101982358), the first-person tale of a woman in the government) come into contact (and conflict) with one another. throes of upending everything she holds to be real and true. Her name Cotterill excels in the portrayal of potentially serious and momentous is Clara—or perhaps it’s Diana, as topics with lighthearted humor, imthat’s what the people who broke buing his characters with grace and into her house and abducted her insist on calling her. They also took empathy in the midst of a particuher husband, Glen, and her daugh- larly difficult chapter of Southeast Asia’s history. ter, Daisy, and have been keeping

2016-06-22 2:48 PM

As Summer Heats Up,

So Does the Suspense...

The Gardiner & Renner Series

The Julia Gooden Mystery Series

Searching for her kidnapped son, one reporter slowly untangles the connection to her brother’s long-ago disappearance.

A killer with a unique sense of justice and a woman in a lifelong relationship with death collide in the New York Times bestselling author’s new series.

“A ferocious thriller… no one will stop reading.”

“A great choice for readers of psychological suspense, and mystery.”

—Booklist

—Library Journal

The international bestselling author’s haunting, new psychological thriller follows a man thrust into the middle of a murder investigation, forced to confront the secrets of his ex-lover’s past.

“Howells is clearly a star in the making.”—The Daily Mail

The Jake Mahegan Series

Delta Force veteran Jake Mahegan is on the most important mission of his life— to save America from the next wave of terror.

“A knock-down/drag-out thrilling look at the reality of domestic terrorism.”

Are some roles worth killing for?

Find out in the #1 New York Times bestselling author’s harrowing tale of stardom, sibling rivalry, and madness.

High school bullying in the Pacific Northwest has unexpected and deadly consequences in the New York Times bestselling author’s terrifying new thriller.

“Will make the reader beg for more.”

“If Alfred Hitchcock were alive today and writing novels, his name would be Kevin O’Brien.”

—Suspense Magazine

ENSINGTON PUBLISHING CORP.—America’s Independent Publisher

—Suspense Magazine

—The Press & Guide on Unspeakable BEGIN READING: KENSINGTONBOOKS.COM

columns

ROMANCE

COOKING

B Y C H R I S T I E R I D G WAY

BY SYBIL PRATT

Dangerous to love

Sharing the bounty

In Sara Humphreys’ Trouble Walks In (Sourcebooks Casablanca, $7.99, 320 pages, ISBN 9781402293702), the second in her McGuire Brothers series, childhood acquaintances Ronan McGuire— now a New York City K-9 cop—and Maddy Morgan enjoy their weekly runs. Ronan knows Maddy needs a friend after the death of her longtime boyfriend. But it’s getting

We live in interesting gastronomic times—we’ve gotten far more savvy and adventurous with flavor, which has introduced us to all sorts of ethnic cuisines. But we’ve also gotten pickier about where our ingredients come from, and many of us aim to eat in a sustainable way that accommodates our vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free friends. So throwing together a potluck meal has become a bit trickier. Kristin Donnelly, a former

super-easy, homemade 5-ingredient cake mix; the syrups— the sweet secret to enhancing and intensifying a cake’s flavor; and topping it off, the frostings and the “extra-somethings” that add a final flourish. It’s all fabulous fun, from a subtly elegant Sweet Cream Cake to a tangy Triple Citrus Cake, an Irish Coffee Cake or a divinely rich, chocolate-throughand-through Best Blackout Cake.

editor at Food & Wine and a fan of the informal fun of the potluck dinner, offers us a repertoire of dishes that travel well, hold up and will impress friends, foodies and ordinary folks alike. Modern Potluck (Potter, $27.50, 240 pages, ISBN 9780804187114), her debut cookbook, starts with snacks like Smoked Fish-Onion Dip, ends with sweets like a Peach-Blueberry Slab Pie and covers everything in between—from Flank Steak Lettuce Cups and Tomatillo Pulled Chicken to Caramelized Kimchi Corn Bread and Coconut-Roasted Squash Wedges. The 105 recipes also include plenty of make-ahead advice.

TOP PICK IN COOKBOOKS

harder and harder to see her as a buddy, and he cautiously attempts to get them out of the friend zone.

Their chemistry cannot be denied, but Maddy isn’t sure she’s ready for another relationship—especially with a man whose job is so dangerous. To make that point sharper, the two of them stumble upon a body that’s part of a string of serial murders—and it’s a woman Maddy knows. There’s a reprieve for the pair when they return to their small hometown for a wedding, and it’s there that the two admit their feelings. But a murderer still lurks in New York City, and when Maddy returns, she finds him lying in wait. Suspense, romance and a heroic dog make this a standout, feel-good story.

HER FAVORITE MISTAKE Kelly Harms tells the story of an artist in her early 30s facing up to real life and old mistakes in The Matchmakers of Minnow Bay (Thomas Dunne, $25.99, 288 pages, ISBN 9781250070616). After 10 years of eking out a living with her painting, Lily Stewart finds herself evicted from her Chicago apartment. As she’s packing, she finds decade-old papers she forgot to sign—the ones that would annul her impulsive Vegas wedding to a stranger. On another whim, Lily

10

decides to track down Ben Hutchinson and take care of the problem in person. But the tech genius’ small town of Minnow Bay, Wisconsin, is a winter wonderland that’s surprisingly hard to leave—as is Ben. As Lily learns more about Ben, she learns more about herself as well—and finds a newfound confidence in her art and the possibilities that lie ahead. Harms has penned a fanciful and amusing book, with a likable heroine who will have readers cheering for her happy ending.

TOP PICK IN ROMANCE A husband-hunting Regency miss catches the wrong man in A Season of Ruin (Berkley, $7.99, 304 pages, ISBN 9780425282649), part of Anna Bradley’s Sutherland Scandals series. After the death of her parents, Lily Somerset is under the Sutherland family’s care, and during the London season, she sets out to find the man of her—very practical—dreams. He’ll be staid and worthy. Nowhere on her list is “heart-stopping” or “worldly.”

That’s why she hasn’t romantically considered the second Sutherland son, Robyn. Everybody knows his slick reputation, and being seen getting close to him could ruin her own reputation. Which is exactly what occurs one night. When gossip spreads that Lily and Robyn were alone behind closed doors, their families concoct a plan to save the situation. Robyn will stick by Lily, almost as if he’s a real suitor.

That closeness allows a surprising passion to catch fire, even as both Robyn and Lily know he’s not the type to be tied down. But the temptation to kiss becomes too much, and soon they are truly entangled.

This one’s a sizzling charmer!

A PIECE OF CAKE We used to bake cakes, but now, with Caroline Wright’s clever, creative approach, we build them.

You’ll still mix ingredients and put pans in the oven, but the end result will be a magical combo of batter, syrup and frosting. All of the practical how-tos are gathered in Cake Magic! Mix & Match Your Way to 100 Amazing Combinations (Workman, $17.95, 192 pages, ISBN 9780761182030). First you’ll feast your eyes on full-color photos of 100 luscious cakes in all their frosted glory, and the recipes follow: the batters—all of them are based on a

Preserving food knows no geographic boundaries; every culture and country has its own traditions for storing Mother Nature’s seasonal bounty. So it’s no surprise that the Italians, who excel at all things culinary, are masters of the art and craft of putting food by. Domenica Marchetti, author of six Italian cookbooks and a devoted practitioner of home preserving, puts her passions together in her latest, Preserving Italy: Canning, Curing, Infusing, and Bottling Italian Flavors and Traditions (HMH, $23, 304 pages, ISBN 9780544611627).

It’s the perfect guide to a DIY Italian pantry stocked with homebrined olives, pickled zucchini, mixed grilled mushrooms in oil, mixed nuts in honey, sweet jams, pale gold bottles of limoncello and, of course, a variety of red tomatoes: whole, sun-dried, pureed or turned into an intense, savory paste. Marchetti also includes recipes and detailed directions for making fresh cheeses and simple cured meats—think buttermilk ricotta, pancetta and guanciale.

Each chapter has suggestions on how to use what you preserve, and there’s all the necessary info on safety. Conserve, preserve and enjoy!

BOOK CLUBS

BY JULIE HALE

Hot times in the city Garth Risk Hallberg’s bestselling debut novel, City on Fire (Vintage, $17, 944 pages, ISBN 9780804172950), is a mesmerizing portrait of New York City in the 1970s. The narrative follows a variety of characters, including wealthy siblings William and Regan Hamilton-Sweeney; a young punk, Charlie Weisbarger, whose heart belongs to cooler-than-thou Samantha Cicciaro; a neurotic journalist named Richard Kos-

groth, and a cop who’s attempting to untangle the mystery behind the book’s central event: a shooting in Central Park on New Year’s Eve. The crime connects these disparate characters in ways that will surprise the reader, and Hallberg’s exploration of the ties that bind them illuminate an era. He nimbly weaves in trends particular to the times—disco, drugs, graffiti—and his use of detail and dialogue, along with unexpected elements such as handwritten letters and cartoons, bring wonderful authenticity to what’s sure to become a classic New York City novel. Earning the author comparisons to Tom Wolfe and Donna Tartt, this is a remarkably assured, richly rewarding debut.

MOVING ON Jojo Moyes follows up the bestselling Me Before You with an irresistible sequel that chronicles the next chapter in the life of Louisa Clark. After You (Penguin, $16, 400 pages, ISBN 9780143108863) finds Lou adapting to life after losing Will Traynor, the man she loved.

She leads a lonely existence in London until a bad fall sends her back home to her family. Lou recuperates slowly in both mind and body, but recuperate she does, thanks in

part to the connections she makes through a support group called Moving On. She even embarks on a new relationship with paramedic Sam Fielding—a tough, competent figure who deals with grief and loss on a daily basis. But there are more twists and turns in store for her, as she considers a new job and tries to put the past behind her. Moyes’ many followers will welcome the return of Lou and root for her as she moves forward with her life. This is another poignant, deeply satisfying love story from an author who has perfected the form.

TOP PICK FOR BOOK CLUBS With Purity (Picador, $17, 608 pages, ISBN 9781250097101), Jonathan Franzen(The Corrections) delivers another timely, provocative work of literary fiction. College grad Pip Tyler lives in Oakland, California. Intelligent but somewhat adrift, she is drawn to the Sunlight Project, a collective that exposes concealed information via the internet. The project’s magnetic leader, Andreas Wolf, hails from East Germany, and his work opens up new worlds for Pip, who embarks on an internship to South America through the organization. Pip never knew her father, and she has hopes of untangling the mysteries of her past via her work with the group.

But her relationship with Andreas intensifies, and she soon finds herself entangled in a complicated web involving politics and murder.

With a varied cast that includes Pip’s domineering yet elusive mother, Franzen’s fifth novel unfolds on a grand scale but feels intimate thanks to the author’s nuanced character portrayals. Franzen fans will not be disappointed.

Fresh Book Club Picks for Summer Home Field

by Hannah Gersen “Home Field accurately depicts the complicated human heart: flawed but still capable of compassion and forgiveness… an auspicious debut by a talented and wise writer.”

—Edan Lepucki, author of New York Times bestseller California

The Lost Girls

by Heather Young

“Heather Young has crafted a gorgeous book that moves artfully back and forth through time, weaving a suspenseful tale steeped in generations of family secrets.”

—Jennifer McMahon, New York Times bestselling author of The Night Sister

The Secrets of Nanreath Hall

by Alix Rickloff

“Alix Rickloff ’s debut is a delight beautifully written with fascinating characters, rich historical detail and an intriguing family mystery that keeps the pages turning.”

—Hazel Gaynor, New York Times bestselling author

The American Girl

by Kate Horsley

“The American Girl is a psychological suspense novel written for the 21st century…a modern-day gothic tale that will have readers holding their breath until the last page.”

—Lori Rader-Day, Mary Higgins Clark-winning author of Little Pretty Things

@Morrow_PB

@bookclubgirl

William Morrow

Book Club Girl

11

cover story

LIANE MORIARTY

Drawing drama out of everyday life

W

e’re all one step away from disaster, and Australian author Liane Moriarty knows it. One day, the sun is shining and you’re attending a backyard barbecue with friends and neighbors; two months later, it’s pouring rain and you can’t stop blaming yourself for what happened on that last sunny day.

So what did happen in that backyard? To say would shatter the considerable suspense of Truly Madly Guilty. But we can reveal that it involved a child, and that it was so troubling that Clementine is taking breaks from practicing for a crucial audition (she’s a cellist) to give talks with the sobering title “One Ordinary Day” at suburban libraries around Sydney.

Even Moriarty (whose first name is pronounced Lee-ann, if you’re wondering) has trouble talking about this one. “With my other books, I’ve been able to tell the whole story of how I was inspired to write it, but in this case it will give away far too much,” she says during a call to her home in Sydney. “So all I’m able to say is that something happened at a barbecue, and I went home with the idea for this book.”

The good thing about a Moriarty novel is that even if there’s one plot development you can’t discuss, there are plenty of others to choose from. Like Kate Atkinson, Moriarty is a master at taking several

TRULY MADLY GUILTY

By Liane Moriarty

Flatiron, $26.99, 432 pages ISBN 9781250069795, audio, eBook available

FAMILY DRAMA

12

seemingly disparate plot threads and weaving them all together with a bang at the end. Also like Atkinson’s novels, Moriarty’s work is difficult to classify.

“If I am at a party and—well, I don’t say this, usually my husband will show off for me and say, ‘My wife’s an author’—but then, the first question is, what sort of books do you write. It’s a reasonable question, but I struggle with how to describe them. I tend to say something like ‘family drama,’ but I’ve never found exactly the right description for them,” Moriarty says. “I love it when other people describe them for me. I don’t think you can see your own books.”

Call them what you will, it’s plain to see that Moriarty has hit a sweet spot for readers. Her stories are full of twists and drama, but they are grounded enough in middle-class reality to elicit a frisson of “it could happen to you,” and they feature flawed but relatable characters. In her first bestseller, The Husband’s Secret, Moriarty followed the repercussions of a long-ago murder on a community and explored trust within a marriage; in Big Little Lies, she took on spousal abuse, bullying and the parenting wars. Truly Madly Guilty touches on growing up with neglectful parents, negotiating a lifelong friendship and finding a balance between career and family life. But mostly, it deals with guilt and the way it affects relationships, especially the central relationship between childhood friends Clementine and Erika.

Now in their 30s, the two women became friends as children, thanks to the prodding of Clementine’s mother, Pam, who saw that the withdrawn and awkward Erika needed a friend. Soon Erika was an honorary member of the family, to Clementine’s chagrin.

“I was really interested in that

because I had just been reading a lot about how people in difficult family circumstances end up sort of couchsurfing,” says Moriarty.

“They’re not officially fostered or adopted, but they end up becoming part of another family, which is a wonderful thing, but then I also started to think about what happens if one of the family feels a bit resentful about that.”

The popular, beautiful Clementine does feel a bit resentful of Erika, but she feels guilty for this after she realizes why Erika needs a sanctuary: Her mother, Sylvia, is a hoarder. Over the decades, Clementine has maintained her Things go relationship with bad at a Erika, though they’re still polar backyard opposites. Erika barbecue is godmother to in the latest Clementine and from the her husband Sam’s oldest author of daughter; she Big Little has a successful Lies. accounting career and is married to the sweet and serious Oliver, who also had a difficult childhood.

But Clementine continues to have complicated feelings about Erika, who, she says, “wasn’t evil or cruel or stupid, she was simply annoying. . . . It was like she was allergic to her.”

Obviously, Moriarty doesn’t pull punches in writing about the intricacies of friendship, marriage and family. In Truly Madly Guilty, she expands her range to dive more deeply into the minds of her male characters, something she says

© UBER PHOTOGRAPHY

INTERVIEW BY TRISHA PING

readers have requested. “I made a conscious decision to explore [men] more, but perhaps that criticism was in the back of my head,” she says. Moriarty says she had the most fun writing Vid, the Slovenian neighbor who hosts the barbecue.

His boisterous demeanor makes it hard for even his wife to realize how hard he was hit by the events that happened that afternoon.

But there are also lighter moments. Early in the book, Sam tries to help Clementine practice for her cello audition by setting up a mock audition in the family’s living room; his well-meaning gesture goes hilariously wrong thanks to 2-year-old Ruby and her constant companion, Whisk (yes, an actual kitchen whisk that sleeps next to Ruby in a tissue-paper-lined box).

Balancing a creative life with family is something Moriarty, the mother of two young children, can identify with. “I have no experience as a musician, but if you’re working toward an audition, you really need to give all of yourself, which is the way I tend to feel just toward the end of the book. I want to be writing all the time, and I don’t want to be distracted.”

Luckily, the success of Moriarty’s writing has allowed her family some flexibility. “My husband is Mr. Mom: He’s a full-time stay-at-home dad.

ADD SOMETHING SWEET TO YOUR So my life is beautifully balanced, and I feel very lucky,” she says.

Moriarty never re-reads her own books after writing them (“eating something other people have cooked for you just tastes better”), but she has enjoyed the process of seeing them translated on screen.

Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman optioned Big Little Lies soon after it was published. Both actors are starring in the limited series, which has completed filming and will air on HBO in 2017.

“I went along to see the filming and because there are all these beautiful, talented people looking wonderful, and David E. Kelley has written a script based on my book, that feels quite different to me. I got to see Nicole Kidman and Alexander Skarsgård in a scene.

Because they were doing it so well, I was thinking to myself, oh, that’s quite good, I hope that part was mine and not David E. Kelley’s.”

For those wondering if we’ll get to hear Witherspoon attempt an Australian accent, the answer is (sadly) no: Kelley’s adaptation is set in Monterey, California. “They’ve made it all American,” Moriarty laughs. “But the school parenting experience seems to be universal.

I think there are a lot of similarities between California and Sydney, so I’m quite happy with that.”

Big Little Lies was the first of Moriarty’s novels to debut at number one on the New York Times bestseller list—and the first time a book by an Australian had debuted in the top spot. “We’ve looked hard!

Obviously other Australian authors have gotten to number one, but no one else has debuted at number one,” she says.

Surprisingly, her success in America came before she was a bestseller in Australia. “It was my lovely American readers who broke me out. I had a nice group of Australian readers, very loyal readers, who like to point out now that they were with me from the beginning,” she says.

More readers have come to Moriarty with every book; Truly Madly Guilty is lucky number seven. We predict there will soon be many more readers buzzing about that barbecue.

SUMMER READING

“One of the most deeply enjoyable—and deeply satisfying— novels I’ve read in ages.”

— Joanna Rakoff, author of My Salinger Year

“A heart-warming reminder that one is never too old for some mischief.”

— Tom Winter, author of Lost and Found

“The story of family loyalties, loss, and the artist’s world is absorbing.”

— Heather Webb, author of Rodin’s Lover

“A thoroughly entertaining tale that brings Hollywood’s golden age alive.”

— People

“The Runaway Wife scales the peaks of human adventure and plumbs the depths of the human heart.”

— Ellen Feldman, author of Terrible Virtue

“Each woman’s secret unfolds in scintillating bits that lead to a scandalous finish.”

— Kirkus Reviews

Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at

HC.com

@HARPERPERENNIAL “Glorious. I loved every line of this book.”

— Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train

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features

JEFFREY TOOBIN INTERVIEW BY ALDEN MUDGE

Patty Hearst and the ‘insanity’ of the 1970s

P

atty Hearst? Jeffrey Toobin was skeptical when his Doubleday editor suggested writing about the sensational 1970s kidnapping saga that Toobin would eventually recount in riveting detail in American Heiress.

“The first thought that came to me was that there must be a million books about Patty Hearst,” Toobin says during a call that reaches him in Washington, D.C. Toobin, whose bestsellers include The Oath and The Nine, is a staff writer for The New Yorker and senior legal analyst at CNN. His wife is an assistant secretary of education in the Obama administration.

Their two children are recently out of college and on their own, so as an empty-nester, Toobin says his work is portable. Although he has offices at both The New Yorker and CNN, his real desk, he says, is the dining room table in their apartment in New York City—or his laptop just about anywhere.

To his surprise, when he looked into the Patty Hearst case, he found that “nothing had been written about it for decades. For decades! I was a young teenager when it happened, so I was vaguely aware of it but not really following it. Just a bit of preliminary research suggested that it was an amazing story that had not been told in any detail.”

For those who don’t remem-

AMERICAN HEIRESS

By Jeffrey Toobin

Doubleday, $28.95, 384 pages ISBN 9780385536714, audio, eBook available

TRUE CRIME

14

ber, on February 4, 1974, Patricia (or “Patty,” as she disliked being called) Hearst, a 19-year-old U.C. Berkeley student and the granddaughter of media magnate William Randolph Hearst, was kidnapped by a shadowy group of revolutionaries known as the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA).

Two months later, Hearst publicly declared she had joined the SLA and taken the nom de guerre “Tania.” She appeared heavily armed on a videotape taken during a bank robbery in San Francisco. Months later, she and fellow SLA members Bill and Emily Harris were out buying supplies when police surrounded the SLA’s Los Angeles hideout. A fiery shootout, the first such news event to be broadcast live nationwide, left all the SLA members at the house dead.

Over the next year, Hearst and the Harrises joined with others, including Kathleen Soliah and her brother, Steve, and continued their revolutionary crime wave with bank robberies and bombings. Hearst was finally captured in September 1975, but the drama continued during her trial on bank robbery charges, where she was defended by the blustery F. Lee Bailey.

With great clarity, Toobin takes readers through all the perplexing twists and turns of the SLA’s misadventures. The SLA, for example, was led by a plum-wine-drinking escaped convict named Donald DeFreeze. His leadership was tactically proficient but strategically hapless, almost comically so.

“There was an element of theater to what they did,” Toobin says.

“Guerilla theater can be effective.

But every time you think of the work of the SLA, it’s imperative to remember Marcus Foster and ­Myrna Opsahl [two victims of the SLA’s murderous rampage]. That quickly takes their behavior out of the realm of funny. . . . DeFreeze attracted a small cross section of

an extreme of the counterculture.”

Toobin excels in giving readers a sense of 1970s-era counterculture, the petri dish in which the SLA was spawned. “One of the things that I found so fascinating researching this book was how insane the ’70s were. I mean, there were dozens of bombings in Northern California alone. Can you imagine what cable news would be doing with dozens of bombings?”

Two big research scores allowed Toobin to add texture, detail and a sense of the complex interpersonal dramas that play out in his narrative. After Bill Harris was released from prison, Harris “People are collected all not onethe material dimensional. about the case I think that is he could get especially true his hands on— court docufor Patricia.” ments, FBI files, private investigators’ notes. Toobin found out about the materials while interviewing Harris and arranged to purchase what turned out to be 150 boxes of documents. “For a journalist/historian looking at the era, this was a gold mine,” he says. Even more interesting was the acquisition of the jailhouse love letters exchanged by Hearst and Steve Soliah. Passed through their lawyers so they remained protected by attorney-client privilege, the letters speak loudly about Hearst’s state of mind after her arrest.

And Hearst’s state of mind is a central question of the book and was the question at her trial.

Toobin offers a balanced portrait that is surprisingly complimentary of her courage and strength. And in some ways he believes her behavior was entirely rational given the circumstances.

“One of my goals in portraying anyone is complexity,” Toobin explains. “People are not one-di-

mensional. Their behavior is not accurately defined in black and white. I think that is especially true for Patricia. She was kidnapped, and it was a horrible experience.

But she also was a willing participant in a lengthy and extensive crime wave, long after she had the opportunity to walk away. I certainly understood why the jury in her trial convicted her. And frankly, she was fortunate that she was not prosecuted for the other two bank robberies that she participated in, or shooting up Mel’s Sporting Goods and setting off bombs in Northern California. That is very serious stuff. If you want to evaluate her conduct, you have to take all that into account.”

Toobin’s portrait of Hearst is nuanced enough that readers are likely to hold different opinions about the extent of her culpability when they reach the end of the book (just as people in the 1970s differed, often vigorously).

“I always thought this was bigger than just a legal story,” Toobin says at the end of our conversation. “It is really about this era and these people. It would have been a mistake to see Patricia Hearst’s experience as simply that was she guilty of a bank robbery. This is really about the question of who this woman was, why she got involved with this craziness, and how did this all happen.”

American Heiress offers compelling answers to these questions.

BEHIND THE BOOK

BY ALIX HAWLEY

© MIKE HAWLEY

Slipping into the moccasins of an 18th-century American pioneer

T

he whole idea behind my novel, All True Not a Lie in It, was a gamble. Once I was hit with the memory of an old National Geographic article about Daniel Boone, I couldn’t stop thinking about him and his story. I was hooked, utterly. But would other people want to read about a long-dead American frontiersman? (And, hang on, would they even know who he was?)

It took a lot of writing and rewriting. And one of the books that influenced me, perhaps surprisingly, was Lolita, whip-smart and shocking. It turns me into a gawper, a gasper—not so much for its horrors as for its own wild gamble.

What writer can pull off the tale of an aging, predatory child molester without scattering readers like pigeons at a gunshot?

Nabokov can. His Humbert Humbert is one of literature’s most ghastly and sorry creations, but we find ourselves listening to him, following him across America, even as we recoil from his desires.

Loathsome as he is, I will argue for this book every time. So why does Nabokov win? Why do we go along with Humbert into the dark?

We have Nabokov’s electric prose, of course. But we also have the character’s own words, his own voice: “Lolita, light of my life, fire of

ALL TRUE NOT A LIE IN IT

By Alix Hawley

Ecco, $15.99, 384 pages ISBN 9780062470096, eBook available

DEBUT FICTION

my loins. My sin, my soul.”

It’s the key. The gamble only succeeds because of it. If we’d had, instead, “His sin, his soul,” the book’s pull would have frayed like I’m female, old rope. Well, Canadian, I suppose I have a gamvegetarian. bler’s heart, But first too. I rolled person was the dice and the only voice stepped into for this book. the first-person shoes, which I’d always found pinching. I fought it, writing draft after draft in other voices, until I caved. Fine. I, Daniel Boone. Double or nothing.

I walked around until the shoes fit. His voice is not my voice. He’s a rough, charismatic leader and a famous hunter; I’m female, fairly quiet, Canadian and vegetarian.

But first person was the only voice for this book. Once I could hear it in my mind, I couldn’t shake it. I hope readers will follow me into Daniel’s shoes—and head—as he moves through the wilderness in search of perfection, a quest that leads to his daughter’s kidnap and his son’s murder. The aftermath is denial, guilt and hard suffering.

My story elides chronology in places, making guesses and filling in gaps for the sake of narrative.

But I didn’t need an unreliable narrator—the story had plenty going on already—so I looked at complicated speakers, like Humbert, and how they tell us their stories.

And we want books to create a reality. To reanimate the 1700s, I had to plough up forests of detail and try to use what Daniel and his family would have known in a nat-

ural way: the Quaker meeting house of his childhood; the Appalachian wilderness he explored; the homes he and his wife, Rebecca, built; and the Delaware, Shawnee, Cherokee and Black lives that intersected with his. I read several biographies, including Lyman Draper’s The Life of Daniel Boone, a 19th-century rescue of Boone oral history and manuscripts, trying to expose the flavor of 18th-century life.

But the books that gave me what I most needed were fiction, Peter Carey’s and Hilary Mantel’s.

Carey’s True History of the Kelly Gang snares Ned Kelly’s wild mind and feeds it to us in pieces, letters and articles. Mantel’s Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, while in third person, give a similar feeling of an access-all-areas pass to someone’s brain. What works in these books is the uncanny sense that we’re listening to the characters while at the same time experiencing what it’s like to be them. We’re inside and outside. For me, this was the trick: We had to be able to see Daniel from both sides at once.

My Daniel Boone is talking to his dead, trying to turn himself inside out and see what he has done, and who he has become. This book is about what is lost, and what remains.

“An exhilarating celebration of all that books awaken within us:

joy, love, wisdom, loss, solace.

Ann Hood is a captivating storyteller.”

—Lily King, New York Times best-selling author of Euphoria

Canadian writer Alix Hawley studied English at Oxford University and now teaches at Okanagan College in British Columbia. All True Not a Lie in It, her debut novel, was longlisted for the Giller Prize. She is currently working on a sequel.

15

features

CYNTHIA D’APRIX SWEENEY INTERVIEW BY TRISHA PING

Inside 2016’s breakout debut

U

nlike most first-time authors, Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney didn’t start writing fiction until her mid 40s. But that’s not the only thing that makes Sweeney and her debut novel stand out.

As of press time, The Nest, which was published in March, has spent 13 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Ecco, which paid a seven-figure advance for the manuscript, has printed 275,000 copies and sold rights in 22 countries; meanwhile, the novel has been optioned for film with “Transparent” creator Jill Soloway (who is also a friend of Sweeney’s) as a producer. Clearly, this story of four adult siblings, who lose an anticipated inheritance thanks to their eldest brother’s big mistake, is resonating in a major way.

We asked Sweeney, who lives in Los Angeles, a few questions about her breakout debut.

How did it feel to see your first novel hit the bestseller list?

Like everything else that’s happened in my life this year, it was a completely surreal experience. I think the morning I was at a hotel with my husband and the New York Times Book Review was delivered to us—the week my book was at number 2—along with room service breakfast was the most out-

THE NEST

By Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney

Ecco, $26.99, 368 pages ISBN 9780062414212, audio, eBook available

FICTION

16

of-body moment. I’m still not sure I’ve processed the whole thing.

Early on, you considered going into publishing. How do you think your writing career would be different if you had? What do you think your years as a marketing copywriter brought to this book?

The first question isn’t one I can really answer. I don’t look back and try to reimagine decades of my life on a different path—it’s too vertigo inducing. I also try to find value in my past decisions, even the ones that I quickly regretted or realized I had to undo. My years as a freelance writer were incredibly important because I grew into a very disciplined and focused worker. I understand that writing is a job, and you need to show up for work every day. I believe that some days are easier than others, but I don’t believe in waiting for inspiration to strike.

Now that The Nest is in the hands of readers, have there been any reactions to it that surprised you?

I always described the book as being about family. It’s surprised me to hear it described by other people as a book about money. The plot centers on money, of course, but I don’t think it’s what the book is about, per se. We don’t talk a lot about money in this country—I think the book has given people the opportunity to talk about something that is important in everyone’s life but rarely discussed in public.

This book really delves into the relationships between adult siblings—the deep connection, but also the way that the family you create can sometimes be a point of conflict with the family you were born into. Why did writing about adult siblings appeal to you?

I grew up in a very Irish-Italian Catholic environment and almost everyone I grew up with had lots of

brothers and sisters. I’m the oldest of four, and I always described our family as “small”—and it was small compared to most of my friends’ families. I’ve always been interested in sibling dynamics and how those relationships become more intense as everyone ages.

Again, from a plot perspective The Nest is about four adult siblings fighting over money, but I believe the book is really about the one thing “The book is we all inherit really about simply by bethe one thing ing born: our we all inherit place in a family narrative. simply by We just become being born: the youngest our place or the oldest and often are in a family assigned other narrative.” convenient labels—the smart one, the pretty one, the funny one—that may be rooted in truth but are still reductive and hard to shake off.

I’m also interested in the idea that because you share DNA and a history with people, you will necessarily share values or a common vision for the future. Sometimes you will and sometimes you won’t and either way is okay!

The characters in The Nest are struggling with something we all have to face—to differing degrees depending on circumstances—but all of us, eventually, have to reconcile the story we inherit with the one we want to write for ourselves.

It’s hard to claim your own desires and take responsibility for your own choices—and mistakes. The Nest is definitely a book about making mistakes and discovering who in your life will forgive you and help you when things are tough.

Do you agree with Warren Buffet’s maxim that “a very rich person should leave his kids enough to do anything but not enough to do nothing”?

I am the worst financial adviser on Earth, but that sounds like a wise plan! I mainly believe that it’s a very complicated, personal decision and depends on the people involved.

You’ve lived on both coasts. How do you think attitudes about money and wealth are different in Los Angeles vs. New York City?

New York City is a much older city than Los Angeles and so it has layers of old money, which is a very particular and exclusive kind of club. Los Angeles money is newer and it’s a little flashier, but more inclusive. If you can pay, you belong! There’s plenty of that in New York City, too, but there is also plenty of the “who are your parents and grandparents and Yale or Harvard?” kind of exclusivity that doesn’t really exist in Los Angeles, a place where people can reinvent themselves week to week if they choose.

What would you blow a huge inheritance on?

An apartment in New York City, and if there was any left over, a little place in Rome.

What are you working on next?

I hope I’m working on a new novel, but it’s a little too soon to tell.

NEW VOICES

Six stellar summer debuts © JASON BERGER

HERE COMES THE SUN

By Nicole Dennis-Benn

Liveright, $26.95, 352 pages ISBN 9781631491764, audio, eBook available

nese-American genius, a wealthy North Korean student and a desperate defector collide in a Chinese border town.

About the author: Krys Lee teaches creative writing in South Korea; her story collection, Drifting House, was published to much acclaim in 2012.

Read it for: A masterful portrayal of the personal side of world politics and Lee’s understanding of the THE LOST GIRLS complexities of immigrant life.

By Heather Young

Morrow, $25.99, 352 pages ISBN 9780062456601, audio, eBook available

For fans of: Edwidge Danticat, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Rohinton Mistry.

First line: “The long hours Margot works at the hotel are never documented.”

About the book: Three generations of Jamaican women struggle with love, family and finances in this beautifully complex novel.

About the author: Jamaican-born writer Nicole Dennis-Benn lives with her wife in Brooklyn, New York, where she teaches writing.

Read it for: A hard-hitting, realistic portrayal of those who live yearround in paradise.

THE INVISIBLE LIFE OF IVAN ISAENKO

By Scott Stambach

St. Martin’s, $25.99, 336 pages ISBN 9781250081865, audio, eBook available

For fans of: Adam Johnson, Changrae Lee, Yiyun Li. First line: “Home still begins as an image for me.”

About the book: The lives of a Chi-

Read it for: An unforgettable lead character and Stambach’s powerful writing, which captures the small acts of kindness and the incidental tragedies that are part of institutional life.

© MATT DOUMA

Viking, $26, 256 pages ISBN 9780670025688, eBook available

For fans of: Coming-of-age tales with remarkable young narrators, such as The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

First line: “Dear Reader, whom I do not know, who may never be, I write not for you but for me.”

About the book: Confined to a children’s hospital in Belarus for all of his 17 years, spunky Ivan Isaenko is determined to transcend his severe physical deformities. His world brightens with the arrival of Polina, an orphaned girl with leukemia.

About the author: Scott Stambach teaches high school and college math and physics in San Diego.

HOW I BECAME A NORTH KOREAN

By Krys Lee

For fans of: Jennifer McMahon, Kate Morton, Laura McHugh.

First line: “I found this notebook in the desk yesterday.”

About the book: Sixty years after the disappearance of her younger sister, Lucy Evans bequeaths the family’s Minnesota lake house to her grandniece, Justine—along with a notebook that recounts some devastating family secrets.

About the author: Heather Young practiced law for a decade and raised two kids before turning to fiction. She has an MFA from Bennington College Writing Seminars.

Read it for: The feeling of sinking into the complications of generational skeletons, like a plunge to the bottom of a cold lake. © ABIGAIL SPARROW

H

ave you discovered your favorite new author of 2016 yet? If not, we have a few ideas. Though these novels cover a range of settings and genres, they each feature a distinctive new voice readers will want to hear more from.

THE GENTLEMAN

By Forrest Leo

Penguin Press, $26, 304 pages ISBN 9780399562631, eBook available

For fans of: Wilde, Wodehouse, “The Addams Family” and Northanger Abbey.

First line: “My name is Lionel Savage, I am twenty-two years old, I am a poet, and I do not love my wife.”

About the book: A 19th-century London poet blows his fortune on books and must marry for money.

When he strikes up a conversation with the Devil at a society soirée, Lionel (accidentally?) sells his new wife—and her soul. Hijinks ensue as Lionel and a band of misfits set off on a half-baked rescue mission.

About the author: A playwright and NYU graduate, Forrest Leo was raised on an actual Alaskan homestead and has practiced dogsledding, carpentry and photography.

Read it for: Monty Python-­esque levels of absurdity, endlessly entertaining footnotes, period-­ appropriate illustrations, swashbuckling adventure and romance.

THE GRAND TOUR

By Adam O’Fallon Price

Doubleday, $26.95, 320 pages ISBN 9780385540957, audio, eBook available

For fans of: Fredrik Backman and Michael Chabon’s Wonder Boys.

First line: “Sir?” About the book: Richard Lazar is reluctantly embarking on an alcohol-fueled book tour for his dark horse hit memoir about the Vietnam War. When Richard meets a hopelessly eager fan named Vance, the author surprises himself by letting Vance tag along.

About the author: A former musician and screenwriter, Adam O’Fallon Price grew up in California, the Netherlands and Saudi Arabia. He currently lives in Iowa with his wife and cat.

Read it for: The oddly tender friendship that develops between the gruff author and the awkward Vance.

Find reviews of these debut novels on BookPage.com.

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TOP 10 enewsletter

meet AMY KROUSE ROSENTHAL the title of your new book?

Q: What’s

Q: Describe the book in one sentence.

Q: I wrote this book because:

A brief guide to the Top 10 notable books of the month, selected by the editors of

Q: My favorite subject in school was:

things that happen in a textbook Amy Krouse Q: T­Rhree osenthal day are:

Q: My readers would be surprised to learn that:

Q: If I could leave behind one good, lasting thing, it would be:

TEXTBOOK AMY KROUSE ROSENTHAL

bookpage.com/newsletters 18

Chances are, you’ve never read a book quite like ­Textbook Amy Krouse Rosenthal (Dutton, $27, 336 pages, ISBN 9781101984543). As the subtitle indicates, this unique collection of lists, observations, drawings, charts, recollections and text messages is “not exactly a memoir,” though it does capture Rosenthal’s quirky charm and unique perspective on being alive. The author of Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life (2005) and more than 30 children’s picture books, she lives in Chicago.

features

PARENTING

BY AMY SCRIBNER

How to grow a happy family

L

et’s be honest: Parents barely have time to think or use the restroom solo.

So a parenting book needs to be pretty compelling to justify using those precious few minutes when you’re not semi-comatose on the couch. These common-sense guides to building a healthy family are worth your time.

I loved The Awakened Family (Viking, $27, 368 pages, ISBN 9780399563966) by Shefali Tsabary, in large part because it made me feel better about occasionally losing my cool with my own tween son. I mean, Tsabary holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology, and she sometimes yells at her daughter.

Tsabary explains that parents are reactive—whether that manifests itself in yelling, overindulging or hovering—because our parenting instincts are based on fear.

advice for families coping with divorce. Director of the Center for Children, Families, and the Law at the University of Virginia, Emery is divorced and remarried himself, and has a successfully blended family. His advice is straightforward and empathetic, and emphasizes parenting as a partnership, even if the marriage is over. “[G]ood parenting involves at least some degree of cooperation,” he writes. “After all, your sevenyear-old will suffer if her bedtime is

Gopnik dives deep into the relationship between child and parent, and lays to rest the notion that there is only one path to good parenting. Throughout the book, she traces the child-parent relationship through human evolution to help us understand how we got to this point—for example, overlaying a scene of cavemen hunting and gathering with one of her and her young grandson at the farmer’s market. She also provides simple examples of how we can be less carpenter, more gardener: contribute to the richness of a child’s world by providing a variety of playthings, from rocks to iPads, and a safe place in which to play.

Then, unless the child wants you to join in, get out of their way.

REDISCOVER THE INTRIGUE, ROMANCE, AND TRAGEDY

SPECIAL FEATURES INCLUDE . . .

ALL EDITIONS • Afterword with the behindthe-scenes story of Lew Wallace HARDCOVER/SOFTCOVER • 8-page color insert with photos from the new 2016 film, Ben-Hur COLLECTOR’S EDITION • More than 100 illustrations, plus more than 50 color photos from the new 2016 film, Ben-Hur

WORKING TOGETHER “Whether you have inflated, grandiose ideas of your children and what they will accomplish in life, or whether you are frightened for them or disappointed in them, all of this ultimately is rooted in fear,” she writes.

She explains why we need to trust in our children’s potential and argues that the best parenting lies in being quiet and open.

“The reason our children turn away from us is that they sense our desire to talk is all about us—our need to manage our anxiety and exert control,” she writes. “By the age of ten, your children are very familiar with how you talk and what you say. They don’t need your words of advice or admonishment. What they need instead is for you to listen and attune yourself to them.”

PARENTING WITH YOUR EX In Two Homes, One Childhood (Avery, $26, 336 pages, ISBN 9781594634154), Dr. Robert E. Emery provides solid, reassuring

eight p.m. in one home and eleven p.m. in another. Your teenager will suffer if you ground him for three weeks for a horrible report card, but your ex tells him, ‘No problem.

Have fun with your friends. You aren’t grounded at my house!’ ” Emery’s focus is on keeping the kids out of your emotional “stuff” with your ex—perhaps easier said than done, but this smart, achievable playbook will help.

ROOM TO GROW Psychologist Alison Gopnik is something of a superstar in the field of child development. In The Gardener and the Carpenter (FSG, $26, 320 pages, ISBN 9780374229702), she lays out her theory that caring for children is like tending a garden, with parent as gardener, encouraging a child’s natural curiosity.

As Gopnik sees it, parenting most definitely isn’t like carpentry. “It isn’t a goal-directed enterprise aimed at shaping a child into a particular kind of adult,” she writes.

In Raising Human Beings (Scribner, $26, 304 pages, ISBN 9781476723747), noted psychologist Ross W. Greene describes parenting as a partnership with your child. “You may not be aware of it, but you started collaborating with your kid the instant he came into this world,” he writes. “When he cried, you tried to figure out what was the matter. Then you tried to do something about it.”

Using several families as case studies, Greene helps shift the way we think about parenting. His belief is that kids do well if they are able to, and good parenting means being responsive to the hand you’ve been dealt.

“If your kid isn’t doing well—if he’s not meeting a given expectation—it’s your job to figure out why and to put poor motivation at the bottom of the list,” he writes.

“Better yet, take poor motivation off the list completely.”

Greene lays out a practical approach to non-punitive parenting—one that seems sure to promote peace in your household.

CAROL WALLACE is the greatgreat-granddaughter of Lew Wallace, author of the novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, which was first published in 1880. Carol has written more than twenty books, including most recently a historical novel, Leaving Van Gogh. She is the coauthor of the New York Times bestseller To Marry an English Lord, an inspiration for Downton Abbey. Carol holds degrees from Princeton University and Columbia University.

COMING TO THEATERS IN AUGUST 2016.

FOR T I C K ET S VISI T B EN H URM OVI E.C OM TY N DA L E.C OM / B EN - H UR CAROLWA L L AC EB OOK S.C OM

TYNDALE and Tyndale’s quill logo are registered trademarks of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

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6/20/2016 2:31:33 PM

features

EDUCATION

BY ANGELA LEEPER

Connecting with kids in the classroom

A

s the start of a new school year approaches, five new books show the differences made in the lives of students by connected educators, a productive environment and even an agreeable substitute teacher.

When Denver teacher Kyle Schwartz gave each of her third graders a sticky note and the prompt, “I wish my teacher knew,” she was floored by the heartfelt responses from children who described their painful home lives, the loneliness they face, the things that bring them joy and pride, and their hopes for the future. Schwartz began tweeting her students’ answers and was surprised when her seemingly simple exercise went viral.

She explains the phenomenon in I Wish My Teacher Knew: How One Question Can Change Everything for Our Kids (Da Capo Lifelong, $19.99, 272 pages, ISBN 9780738219141). Schwartz opens with an overview of the project’s purpose: to create community and a positive learning environment for every child. She argues that teachers can make an impact on children’s lives in many difficult areas, including poverty, grief and loss, trauma and accepting families in all their forms. Detailed Teacher Tools provide suggestions for transforming any classroom or school into a greater community. After reading Schwartz’s book, teachers will be inspired to join the #IWishMyTeacherKnew movement and get to know their students better.

BRIDGING THE GAP Before receiving funding in 2010 to open a small public middle school in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, one of the poorest neighborhoods in New York City,

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principal Nadia Lopez envisioned her students crossing the Brooklyn Bridge. Even though they live near this architectural marvel, most had never seen it, let alone walked across it. Crossing the bridge would not only become a rite of passage for these students, it would also come to symbolize the connection between their difficult past and a brighter future.

In The Bridge to Brilliance: How One Principal in a Tough Community Is Inspiring the World (Viking, $26, 288 pages, ISBN 9781101980255), the compassionate yet no-nonsense Lopez describes how she started from scratch to build a school that became a beacon of hope, determination and success. If her story sounds familiar, it’s because her accomplishments drew widespread praise after a student revealed them on the popular Humans of New York blog. In this stirring account, Lopez reveals that listening to her students and seeing them as individuals despite their harsh environment have made all the difference.

COUNTING ON SUCCESS Successful teaching is the best preventative discipline method.

Recognizing that teachers and kids aren’t perfect, however, 1-2-3 Magic in the Classroom: Effective Discipline for Pre-K through Grade 8 (Sourcebooks, $15.99, 288 pages, ISBN 9781492633051) offers easy-to-implement strategies as a backup. Authors Thomas W. Phel-

an, Ph.D., and Sarah Jane Schonour, M.A., based this guide for educators on 1-2-3 Magic, a bestselling discipline guide for parents.

After learning about the “teacher in charge” method that uses counting and non-judgmental consequences, readers are introduced to “start” behaviors (such as doing classwork) and “stop” behaviors (such as yelling). The authors emphasize the importance of avoiding the two biggest discipline mistakes: too much talking and too much emotion. To help with implementation, they present numerous scenarios to think about or role play.

For educators who worry about more serious discipline problems, disciplining students with developmental differences or discipline at different grade levels, the guide includes comprehensive Q&As and more scenarios from the trenches.

It might not be true magic, but if used successfully, this technique will feel like it.

FINDING ALTERNATIVES Manufacturing in the United States is rebounding, and according to Katherine S. Newman and Hella Winston, many fast-growing occupations are considered “middle skill.” Labor force s­ hortages have already occurred in jobs that require education beyond high school, but not a four-year college degree. Reskilling America (Metropolitan, $28, 272 pages, ISBN 9781627793285) offers a convincing argument for bringing back vocational education.

Beginning with a history of vocational education and the

transition to “college for all,” which left many students, particularly minority men, without career prospects, the thought-provoking text emphasizes investment in training institutions, both in high schools and community colleges.

It looks to Germany as a model for relationships between industry and education that have fostered a robust dual system combining vocational education with apprenticeships. The authors describe the success of this system, Germany’s attempt at creating similar programs in the U.S. and the slow revival of vocational education in U.S. schools. Not just funding—but a renewed respect for middle-skill labor—might be the key to success in this country.

FILLING IN Award-winning author Nicholson Baker has tackled such daunting subjects as World War II, library preservation, poetry and even erotic stories. He takes on perhaps his most unwieldy topic yet—the state of American education—in Substitute: Going to School with a Thousand Kids (Blue Rider, $30, 736 pages, ISBN 9780399160981).

In this hefty volume, to be published September 6, Baker recounts the 28 days he spent in Maine’s public schools in 2014 as “the lowest-ranking participant in American education: a substitute teacher.” With a clean criminal record and “a willingness to tolerate your own ineptitude,” plus a short evening course that would earn him an extra $5 per day, Baker had all he needed to substitute.

Each chapter, representing one day, gives a snapshot into a classroom, from kindergarten to high school special education math.

Rather than provide commentary, the author lets the teacher’s sub plans, classroom environment and dialogue with and between students guide each chapter. The result is an often chaotic, exhausting—and entertaining—view of the school day in which he is usually saved by coffee, an eager student and the final bell. Baker emerges with empathetic appreciation for all the students and teachers who bear these ups and downs daily.

Back to School!

Have you got the j itters ?

For over fifteen years, Sarah Jane Hartwell has gone back to school with the jitters. In this warm and funny story, every first day of school becomes less scary.

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Don’t send kids— or teachers!— back to school without First Day J i tters.

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Enjoy these back-to-school favorites, too!

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Check out the First Day Jitters project and hear stories of first days from authors and illustrators at www.charlesbridge.com/FDJ • www.charlesbridge.com •

reviews T PI OP CK

FICTION

TO THE BRIGHT EDGE OF THE WORLD

Blending history and myth REVIEW BY STEPHENIE HARRISON

Magical realism may most frequently be associated with LatinAmerican literature, but Pulitzer Prize finalist Eowyn Ivey (The Snow Child) has proven that the technique works equally well in novels set in distinctly chillier locales. Her second novel, To the Bright Edge of the World, is a spellbinding tale of adventure that blends myth and historical fiction and takes readers into the heart of the untamed wilderness of the Alaskan frontier.

Told through private diary entries, newspaper clippings, government reports, personal letters and more, the patchwork-quilt narrative results in a fully immersive reading experience that draws readers deep into 19th-century Alaska. It’s 1885, and Lieutenant Colonel Allen Forrester has been asked by the U.S. government to travel north along the

By Eowyn Ivey Little, Brown, $26, 432 pages Wolverine River and survey the surrounding land and its peoples. Along ISBN 9780316242851, audio, eBook available with a small company of soldiers, Allen embarks on a grueling foray into an unforgiving terrain. His reports detail the harsh conditions HISTORICAL FICTION the group experiences and are firmly grounded in this world; however, his journal and letters to his wife, Sophie, shed a different light on the events, describing encounters with the local indigenous people that have a decidedly supernatural bent. The deeper his team moves into the Alaskan backcountry, the more the wilderness exposes their own primal natures. Meanwhile, feeling stifled by the small-minded community back home, Sophie embarks on her own journey of self-discovery.

Filled with love, loss, grief and joy, To the Bright Edge of the World is a cracking adventure that pulses with emotional power and a brutal kind of beauty. Though the story is filled with tender correspondence between Allen and Sophie, the book itself stands as a love letter from Ivey to her home state: Even at their most harrowing, her descriptions of Alaska’s sweeping wilds are breathtaking and evocative. With rich prose, compelling characters and elegant storytelling, To the Bright Edge of the World brings history and folklore to life in a visceral and utterly beguiling way.

THE UNSEEN WORLD

By Liz Moore

Norton $26.95, 464 pages ISBN 9780393241686 Audio, eBook available LITERARY FICTION

In The Unseen World, Liz Moore’s third novel, the Philadelphia-based author invites us into the unpredictable world of 12-year old Ada Sibelius and her brilliant, socially inept father, David, who works in a computer science lab in Boston. When Ada’s father goes missing, she is led down a difficult path to discover his true past. Toggling between the early computing world of the 1980s and a San

22

Francisco tech start-up in 2009, the novel follows the development of intelligent technology—from early language programming to modern-day virtual reality simulations—effortlessly fusing themes of advancing technology and human psychology in an ambitious, poignant story.

Moore’s lyrical language is coupled with a crystalline vision of her characters. Lionhearted Ada, whom we follow from childhood to adulthood, is unforgettable: brainy, guarded yet full of curiosity and passion. The supporting cast also shines. An irresistible page-turner with a heart-stopping ending, The Unseen World winds its way through mystery, heartbreak and mortality with an acute sense of what it means to be human.

—SARA ESTES

THE SENILITY OF VLADIMIR P.

By Michael Honig Pegasus $24.95, 336 pages ISBN 9781681771564 eBook available SATIRICAL FICTION

When the Soviet Union collapsed, some triumphalists in the West expected something unlikely.

They expected Russia to play nice.

It hasn’t turned out that way, and they blame Vladimir Putin. But imagine Russia’s surly and enigmatic leader once he has fallen from power. Imagine him with his faculties less than intact. This is the premise of The Senility of Vladimir P., the ingenious second

novel from former surgeon Michael Honig.

The five-term president, twoterm prime minister and de facto czar suffers from hallucinations. An imagined Chechen torments him, so he treats the mirage to his wellknown judo skills. In more lucid moments, he raves about his own cunning and watches TV footage of his exploits. Putin’s long-suffering, long-term nurse, Sheremetev, considers himself the last incorruptible Russian. Then his nephew Pasha goes to jail, and Sheremetev takes to pawning Putin’s vast collection of luxury watches to set Pasha free.

Marx said history repeats itself, first as tragedy and then as farce.

Honig’s novel is the farce to Russia’s genuine tragedy. The dacha where Putin convalesces comes to symbolize post-Soviet Russia as a whole, and the novel betrays a serious anguish at what has befallen the country. It delights in showing its architect as a destructive megalomaniac. Today, Putin likes to appear shirtless to show his virility. Honig suggests instead that the emperor wears no clothes.

—KENNETH CHAMPEON

I WILL SEND RAIN

By Rae Meadows

Holt $26, 272 pages ISBN 9781627794268 Audio, eBook available HISTORICAL FICTION

Rae Meadows’ latest novel, I Will Send Rain, plunges her readers into Oklahoma’s Dust Bowl from the very first pages: The Bell family is hunkered down in the two-room dugout Samuel carved out of the earth when he and Annie arrived 19 years earlier. It’s 1934, and Mulehead, Oklahoma, is being hit with its first dust storm—with many to follow. When Samuel and Annie and their children, Birdie, 15, and Fred, 8, emerge, they see the garden, the house, the wheat in the fields buried under feet of dust.

As the drought rolls on, families begin to disappear, defeated

FICTION by both the lack of rain and the increasingly frequent dust storms.

Samuel turns to religion. Convinced that God has a plan, he decides to build a boat—an ark that, like Noah’s, will bring them to safety when the deluge finally arrives. Annie, on the other hand, has given up on God. Irritated by Samuel’s obsession with his boat, she drifts into a flirtatious relationship with the town mayor.

The strength of Meadows’ novel lies with these sympathetic and carefully drawn characters, each one confronting this harsh reality in his or her own way. Regardless of how much readers know about the Dust Bowl, reading this thoroughly engaging and meticulously researched novel will make them feel as if they have experienced it themselves.

readers into the hearts of her characters. Although this is decidedly a novel, Parkhurst draws on her own experience as the mother of a child with Asperger’s, making Alexandra’s frustration with her brilliant but difficult-to-reach eldest daughter and resulting desperation ring true.

When Scott comes along, she questions how a man with scant credentials and no parenting experience can declare himself a child behavior expert. But if there’s hope, Alexandra can’t help but gravitate to it.

By toggling perspectives of the Hammond family women—Alexandra, Tilly and Iris, who is the primary storyteller—Parkhurst deftly illuminates the narrative.

As the family settles in, questions about Scott’s sketchy qualifications become impossible to ignore. The result is a riveting read.

—DEBORAH DONOVAN

—CARLA JEAN WHITLEY

HARMONY

By Carolyn Parkhurst

Pamela Dorman $27, 288 pages ISBN 9780399562600 Audio, eBook available POPULAR FICTION

DARK MATTER

By Blake Crouch

Crown $26.99, 352 pages ISBN 9781101904220 Audio, eBook available SUSPENSE

knows the odds of finding a way back to his true home, to the singular life that his personal choices generated, are dangerously small.

But driven by love, Jason embarks on a terrifying journey to return to the place and the people he belongs with. And he must fight the worst of himself to get there.

Author of the trilogy that inspired the “Wayward Pines” television series, Blake Crouch is a proven master of crafting surreal “what-if” stories set against a landscape of normalcy. In Dark Matter, Crouch draws back the curtain that divides our day-to-day lives from frightening companion timelines, worlds that are just a single choice away from being our own reality.

With a finale that satisfies while leaving the reader with much to reflect on, Dark Matter is a brilliant beacon in the landscape of speculative thrillers.

— G E R R Y PA I G E S M I T H

THE MUSE

By Jessie Burton

Ecco $27.99, 416 pages ISBN 9780062409928 Audio, eBook available HISTORICAL FICTION

All Alexandra Hammond wants is to understand and help her daughter. Tilly, who is on the autism spectrum, has needs that exceed what Alexandra and her husband, Josh, know how to provide. They’ve tried patience, talking to their teenage daughter and coaching her through outbursts. They’ve tried therapy.

They’ve tried special schools. But no combination of education and treatment works.

So the Hammonds are taking a drastic measure: They’re leaving Washington, D.C., and joining parenting expert Scott Bean and two other families at Camp Harmony, a refuge for families of special-needs children, in New Hampshire. Even if it means giving up independence and privacy, the family is determined to create the best life for Tilly and her younger sister, Iris.

In Harmony, bestselling author Carolyn Parkhurst (The Dogs of Babel, Lost and Found) again pulls

Physics professor Jason Dessen is content with the life he’s created for himself. Married 15 years to his first true love, he is a proud father to a teenage son and is teaching a subject he adores. But as he toasts the achievement of a fellow scientist on a night out, Jason can’t help but wonder what might have been had he focused on work instead of family. His reflections on the choices that led him to this moment blind him to the approach of an assailant, a stranger who is about to insert him into territory unknown in every sense of the word.

He later awakens in a world where Jason Dessen is a foremost authority in quantum physics, celebrated for his innovation in the exploration of alternate timelines.

It’s also a world in which he never married his wife, a place where his son never existed and a reality where his life is threatened by those who want to control his work. Jason

British author Jessie Burton’s sophomore effort juggles two eras: 1960s London and central Spain at the start of the Spanish Civil War. Like The Miniaturist (2014), The Muse focuses on a work of art that influences the lives around it. In this case, the work is a significant Spanish painting with a mysterious provenance that links the lives of three women over four decades.

The 1960s narrator of The Muse is Odelle Bastien, originally from Trinidad and an aspiring writer trying to find her way in London.

Lonely and underemployed in a shoe shop, she finds an unexpected mentor in Marjorie Quick, who not only hires her at the Skelton Institute of Art, but also supports her literary ambitions.

In the parallel story, art dealer Henry Schloss has settled with his wife and 19-year-old daughter,

Olive, in a small Spanish village outside of Malaga in 1936. Half siblings Isaac and Teresa Robles step in as handyman and maid for the wealthy family. Olive is drawn to Isaac, a painter swept up by the country’s revolutionary fervor. An artist herself, Olive has kept her talent a secret from her father. Olive persuades Isaac to present her work as his, and soon after, notable collectors such as Peggy Guggenheim are writing the young Spaniard.

The two stories come together when Odelle’s boyfriend, Lawrie, shows up at the Skelton with a striking painting that belonged to his mother. The work is promoted by the gallery as a newly uncovered masterpiece by Isaac, but Odelle is disturbed by both Lawrie’s lack of honesty about his family and Marjorie’s panicked reaction to the painting.

Though the details are intriguing, the plot wobbles a bit, and the otherwise determined Olive’s protests against claiming her work as her own don’t quite ring true. Still, Burton has a sure grasp on how ambition and revenge prove to be great motivators. The Muse proves an enjoyable read, especially for those interested in its inventive blend of art and history.

—LAUREN BUFFERD

Visit BookPage.com to read a Q&A with Jessie Burton.

LEAVING LUCY PEAR

By Anna Solomon

Viking $26, 336 pages ISBN 9781594632655 Audio, eBook available HISTORICAL FICTION

Despite the abundance of Massachusetts coastline that serves as a backdrop for Leaving Lucy Pear, readers should be warned that Anna Solomon’s novel has nothing in common with your typical summer beach read.

Solomon’s story begins in 1917, when Beatrice Haven—an unwed, albeit wealthy, young Jewish

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reviews mother—makes the heartbreaking decision to abandon her infant daughter beneath a pear tree. The baby, named Lucy Pear, is quickly rescued by Emma Murphy, an impoverished Irish Catholic who already has her hands more than full trying to feed, clothe and care for a growing family of her own.

Lucy is thrust into a world far removed from that of her birth family, but Solomon avoids clichés proclaiming the nobility and selflessness of the poor. Industrialists have grown rich on profits hewn from the broken bones and spirits of the working class, and Solomon’s nuanced story depicts the catastrophe that results when these two disparate spheres collide—both in the larger world, and through the lens of Lucy’s experience with the two women who love her.

Spanning the Great War and Prohibition and deftly delving into the social issues of the time, Leaving Lucy Pear is the perfect choice for readers who appreciate the rigor and richness of literary fiction.

—KAREN ANN CULLOTTA

FICTION al that includes white flight and poverty. August’s parents left behind a farm in Tennessee, and Woodson’s descriptions of both rural and urban settings are vivid and poetic. As she approaches her teens, August befriends three tough but vulnerable girls. The four friends pursue divergent dreams, which are meant to transport them from Brooklyn, but are also fueled by their experiences there. Powerful subplots explore the fates of August’s uncle, drafted to Vietnam, and August’s mother, drifting off into madness.

Another Brooklyn is so slim as to almost be a novella, and the scenes are brief and impressionistic, sometimes just a few sentences long. This, however, does not detract from the vibrancy of this coming-of-age story. Though August—and most of the characters in the book—are at times overwhelmed or enraged, they persevere. A question posed by August late in the book resonates with nearly all of the characters in this tender yet searing novel: “How do you begin to tell your own story?”

—T O M D E I G N A N

ANOTHER BROOKLYN

By Jacqueline Woodson

Amistad $22.99, 192 pages ISBN 9780062359988 Audio, eBook available COMING-OF-AGE

The title of Jacqueline Woodson’s brief, powerful first novel for adults, Another Brooklyn, could mean many things. Is it an acknowledgment of the difference between the Brooklyn of the 1970s and today’s hipster kingdom? Is it meant to distinguish her gritty book from Colm Tóibín’s bestseller, Brooklyn, which became an Academy Award-winning film? Or is Woodson referring to the ways in which memory can change a place in our minds as the years go on?

Woodson—a National Book Award winner for Brown Girl Dreaming—introduces her narrator, August, as she looks back on her arrival as a young girl to 1970s Brooklyn, in the midst of upheav-

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from celebrity flings to incredible career advancements.

Readers will delight (and sometimes cringe) as Evie, Willow and Krista go through awkward hookups, career struggles, familial drama and the occasional epic failure as they discover that pretty just might come at a hefty price.

Peppered with topical references, this witty, feminist fairy tale is perfectly timed for a new generation of women making their way through the world. The Regulars unravels the concept of prettiness, beauty standards and pop culture in general. Clark beautifully brings to life the struggle to accept oneself, while still wanting to change. And her entertaining story urges readers to ponder: What would you do?

—HOPE RACINE

HEROES OF THE FRONTIER

By Dave Eggers

Knopf $28.95, 400 pages ISBN 9780451493804 Audio, eBook available LITERARY FICTION

THE REGULARS

By Georgia Clark

Atria / Emily Bestler $26, 400 pages ISBN 9781501119590 eBook available POPULAR FICTION

YA author Georgia Clark’s first adult novel, The Regulars, drops readers effortlessly into the lives of three 20-something best friends trying to make it in New York City: Evie, an aspiring writer and diehard feminist who hates her job at a trashy magazine; Willow, an ethereal and troubled aspiring artist; and Krista, the confident trainwreck of a best friend so many of us have had.

When the trio comes across a magical potion that will make them pretty—drop-dead, supermodel level pretty—they go down the rabbit hole and try it. To no one’s surprise, the friends find opportunities laid at their gorgeous feet,

The protagonist of Dave Eggers’ new novel, Heroes of the Frontier, is hardly a model of parental rectitude: She abandons her home and dental practice in Ohio to traverse Alaska in a rickety RV with her two children. Starting from this dubious premise, Eggers weaves an engaging story of second chances and the fierce beauty of maternal love.

Approaching age 40, Josie is haunted by a malpractice case filed by a former patient whose litigious son-in-law claims she missed evidence of an oral cancer in a routine dental examination. Her guilt over that incident is surpassed only by the anguish she feels over the death of another patient, a young Marine who was killed in Afghanistan.

While Josie’s tenuous hold on rationality propels the novel, Eggers gives her a pair of appealing traveling companions. Her 8-year-old son, Peter, is “far more reasonable and kind and wise than his mother,” personality traits that come in handy for dealing with his 5-year-

old sister, Ana, who’s “tuned to a different galactic frequency.” Both children demonstrate remarkable resilience, resigning themselves to the fact that there’s “no longer any logical pattern to their lives.”

This tiny crew navigates a craft north from Anchorage, on Alaska’s highways and back roads. Along the way, they take in a magic show on a cruise ship, meet a veteran of one of America’s lesser-known conflicts—the invasion of Grenada— and live in a cottage on the site of an abandoned silver mine. Eggers captures the essential weirdness of this journey while firmly anchoring it to Josie’s emotional crisis.

Heroes of the Frontier seems at first an ironic description of this tiny band. But what Eggers shows so convincingly is that there’s a certain heroism in trading a disastrous life for the vague glimpse of a new one. It’s a vote for the optimistic notion that tomorrow has the potential to be better than today.

—HARVEY FREEDENBERG

STILL HERE

By Lara Vapnyar

Hogarth $26, 320 pages ISBN 9781101905524 eBook available LITERARY FICTION

Lara Vapnyar’s absorbing new novel is about immigrating to America, where life must be managed despite dashed hopes and disappointments. Expanding the reach of her previous novels, The Scent of Pine and Memoirs of a Muse, Still Here explores the overlapping lives of a quartet of friends who struggle with love and ambition in their chosen country.

Vica, Vadik, Sergey and Regina met as students in Moscow. Though each of them has achieved their dream of coming to America, life in the Big Apple is not what they expected. Sergey has one disastrous low-level job after another and spends most of his energy trying to perfect Virtual Grave, an app that will allow people to preserve their online presence after death. Putting

FICTION aside plans for medical school, his spirited wife, Vica, struggles to keep the family financially solvent.

Sergey’s old girlfriend Regina, now married to a wealthy American businessman, mourns her former career as a translator and her place at the center of Moscow’s rich literary culture, while Sergey’s best friend, Vadik, moves from neighborhood to neighborhood and girlfriend to girlfriend, searching for the woman and the sense of opportunity he found on his very first night in New York.

The creation of Virtual Grave proves the focus of much of the action as the four friends debate its potential value, how best to market it and what the app reveals about the commercial culture surrounding death. But these discussions also spur questions about how to define success and what it really means to leave a legacy.

Vapnyar is a brilliant observer of the differences between Russian culture and American life, especially the cosmopolitan, urban variety—and despite the fatalistic worldview of her characters, the author’s belief that miracles do happen provides much humor. A piercing novel about the absurdities of the digital age, Still Here is also the finest kind of comedy of manners, as much a snapshot of how we live now as were the 19th-century novels of Anthony Trollope and George Eliot.

—LAUREN BUFFERD

HOW TO PARTY WITH AN INFANT

By Kaui Hart Hemmings

Simon & Schuster $26, 240 pages ISBN 9781501100796 Audio, eBook available POPULAR FICTION

Single mom Mele is raising her 2-year-old daughter in San Francisco. She has a pack of funny, irreverent friends and a flexible blogging gig that allows her to hang out with said friends and their kids.

The only hiccup in her otherwise great life? The father of her child is marrying someone else: a gorgeous

woman who makes cheese in Petaluma.

“When he first told me about her I envisioned a country woman milking goats, her jeans pulled up to her nipples, but she isn’t like that at all,” says Mele. “She has a perfect ponytail, big teeth, and high cheekbones—that alien look of models. She knows how to sail, make cheese, ride horses, Hemmings and she’s maris brutally rying the man honest about I thought I’d be the pain and with for the rest of my life.” pleasure of Hemmings, parenting who first made in the 21st her mark with century.

2007’s The Descendants, is a superbly confident and inventive writer. Much of Mele’s story is told through her application for a cookbook-writing contest, a surprisingly effective construct through which she tells stories about her friends and comes up with recipes inspired by their tales. The fact that the contest is sponsored by the San Francisco Mothers’ Club also allows for plenty of humor in Mele’s no-holds-barred responses.

Does your husband cook? reads one question. How do you divvy up the responsibilities?

“Way to rub it in my face, you sick, kitten-heel wearing bitches,” Mele replies.

When her baby daddy invites her to his wedding, Mele asks her friend Henry, a stay-at-home dad, to be her date. Henry’s marriage is failing, and Mele suspects her innocent invitation has the potential to turn into something much more.

But is she ready to move on from the one she thought was The One? How to Party with an Infant is hilarious. Hemmings is brutally honest about the pain and pleasure of parenting in the 21st century, when analyzing other parents’ choices—from schools to snacks— has become a favorite pastime. She also reinforces the universal truth that non-judgmental, imperfect, supportive and slightly boozy friends are the best antidote to the parenting wars.

Like a fast-moving thunderstorm across the Great Plains, The Bones of Paradise wastes little time establishing plot: Two people are found dead in the opening chapter.

A white cattle rancher happens upon the fresh grave of a young Native-American woman. J.B. Bennett quickly determines that the woman, Star, has been murdered.

But Bennett looks up to see someone he knows pointing a rifle, and feels a bullet pierce his chest.

A gifted writer, Agee returns here to historical fiction, the genre that served her so well in her award-winning The River Wife.

The Bones of Paradise is set in late 19th-century Nebraska in the aftermath of the Wounded Knee Massacre, where some 200 Lakota men, women and children were shot and killed by U.S. cavalry. The tension between the white settlers and the remaining tribal members, who often face discrimination, places a strain on the friendship between Dulcinea Bennett, J.B.’s widow, and Rose, Star’s sister. But the two women are united in their quest to find the killer . . . or killers.

Agee’s fast-paced narrative resembles the expansive prose of Larry McMurtry. Her lyrical writing and attention to detail evoke comparisons to Annie Proulx. There are biblical and Shakespearean echoes here as well: Dulcinea’s two sons recall Cain and Abel, and could somehow be involved in the murder; Dulcinea’s father-in-law, Drum, conjures images of a crazed King Lear. The Bones of Paradise is also a romance, with sparks between Dulcinea and a new hired hand—and of course, there’s that murder mystery. Agee deftly weaves all these plot lines together into a captivating tale of life—and death—in the old American West.

—AMY SCRIBNER

—J O H N T. S L A N I A

THE BONES OF PARADISE

By Jonis Agee

Morrow $25.99, 432 pages ISBN 9780062413475 Audio, eBook available HISTORICAL FICTION

THE BOOK THAT MATTERS MOST

By Ann Hood

Norton $25.95, 368 pages ISBN 9780393241655 eBook available LITERARY FICTION

Readers who have ever turned to a book to get out of a slump are going to love Ann Hood’s The Book That Matters Most. The story begins on a festive December night in downtown Providence where Ava, a middle-aged French professor, is feeling anything but festive after discovering her husband’s infidelity.

Like a film reel, memories of her once perfect life keep running in her head and no number of martinis can push the stop button. Miles away in Paris, Ava’s daughter, Maggie, is going through a crisis of her own after a failed attempt at writing a novel. Both women are desperate for something to pull them out of their misery.

Ava meets her savior in the form of a book club headed by her librarian friend, Cate, where each member must choose the book that matters most to her for the club to read. Hesitant at first about fitting in and even making the grave mistake of Netflixing her first book, Ava soon finds the comfort she is looking for in the books and the club members.

With Maggie, on the other hand, Hood takes us on a roller coaster ride through drug addiction, poor choices in men and her desperation to write. She finds a lifeline in a tiny bookstore run by a mysterious and stoic American expat.

Getting lost and then being found would in itself make for a wonderful story, but Hood adds another layer of complexity, linking the parallel journeys of mother and daughter in an unexpected way.

The Book That Matters Most is an engrossing tale that reminds us of the power of the written word to comfort the soul.

—CHIKA GUJARATHI

Visit BookPage.com to read an essay by Ann Hood.

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KNOWN AND STRANGE THINGS

By Teju Cole

I’M SUPPOSED TO PROTECT YOU FROM ALL THIS

A mother-daughter reckoning

By Luke Dittrich

Random House $28, 464 pages ISBN 9780812992731 eBook available SCIENCE

If you liked The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, you’ll love Patient H.M.: Memory, Madness, and Family Secrets. Not only is this new book an endlessly fascinating account of medical history, but the author, Esquire contributing editor Luke Dittrich, has a deeply personal connection to the story.

In the early 1930s in Hartford, Connecticut, a bicyclist zoomed down a hill and hit a boy who had just stepped into the road. That

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ESSAYS

REVIEW BY CATHERINE HOLLIS

Nadja Spiegelman’s brilliant excavation into four generations of her maternal line is nothing short of astonishing. The daughter of Art Spiegelman (Maus) and Françoise Mouly (art director of The New Yorker), Spiegelman would have a compelling coming-of-age story to tell simply on the basis of her parentage and her upbringing among artists.

I’m Supposed to Protect You from All This, however, is unusually sensitive to the transmission of family secrets and wounds between generations. Rather than tell the story of an individual daughter, this elegant, beautifully structured memoir tells the story of four generations of daughters locked in painful battle with their mothers.

The focus of the narrative, at first, is the glamorous and frightening Mouly. Her sudden rages and overt favoring of her son over her daughter could—in other hands—be grounds for a revenge memoir.

By Nadja Spiegelman Her maternal cruelty, particularly concerning food and weight gain, is Riverhead, $27, 384 pages honestly depicted by her daughter. Despite these clearly painful expeISBN 9781594631924, audio, eBook available riences, Spiegelman’s drive is to understand her mother, not condemn her. Alternating chapters that focus on each woman’s adolescence show MEMOIR how both were targets for their mothers’ anger. In Mouly’s case, she fled from France to New York at age 18 to escape the mire of family life.

Spiegelman’s desire to learn the truth about her mother’s childhood takes her to Paris and her grandmother Josée, yet another strong-willed and sharp-tongued woman. As she pursues Josée’s childhood story, as well as her mother Mina’s story, she learns that certain patterns and connections have haunted each of these pairs of mothers and daughters, even when they recall events differently.

A meditation on memory and the nature of truth as much as a family history, I’m Supposed to Protect You from All This introduces a stunning new voice in the field of memoir.

PATIENT H.M.

Random House $17, 416 pages ISBN 9780812989786 eBook available

collision was the likely cause of severely debilitating epileptic seizures that began to plague young Henry Molaison. They were so crippling—and uncontrollable by drugs—that in 1953, his parents agreed to brain surgery for their then 27-year-old son.

Neurosurgeon William Beecher Scoville removed most of ­Molaison’s medial temporal lobe, including his hippocampus. The patient’s seizures improved, but those “devastating and enlightening cuts” into his brain created a new problem: permanent amnesia. Unknowingly, Dr. Scoville had created “Patient H.M.,” who became one of the most important research subjects in neuroscience history. Though he died in 2008, his brain is still being studied, even sparking a custody battle between MIT and the University of California at San Diego.

Dittrich’s personal connection

turns this already remarkable story into an extraordinary one: Dr. Scoville was his grandfather. Dittrich spent six years researching a saga fraught with family pitfalls. Scoville was a brilliant Yale professor with myriad accomplishments, but he was also a risk-taker whose love of cars and speed ultimately killed him. A man with a penchant for “fast results,” this gifted surgeon performed numerous lobotomies into the 1970s, well after they had largely gone out of fashion.

In riveting prose, Dittrich takes readers on an informative tour of everything from early mental illness treatments to neuroscience and neurosurgery. The result is a story filled with heartbreak and sweeping historical perspective.

—ALICE CARY

Visit BookPage.com to read a Q&A with Luke Dittrich.

“Salinger’s Holden Caulfield made a distinction between writers you would like to call on the phone and those you wouldn’t care to talk to at all. Teju Cole belongs to the former group.”

Those words were written by the author Aleksandar Hemon, and they’re proven true by Known and Strange Things, Teju Cole’s companionable new essay collection. Again and again in this gathering of more than 40 pieces, Cole demonstrates an appealing blend of erudition and affability—a quality that makes him unique as an essayist.

The author of the award-winning novel Open City, Cole was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, but grew up in Lagos, Nigeria. He returned to the states for college, focusing on art history and photography. Both subjects figure prominently in these essays, which are organized into three categories: “Reading Things,” “Seeing Things” and “Being There.”

In the wistful “Far Away from Here,” Cole considers themes of home and dislocation during a visit to Switzerland, where he photographs the landscape in a process he describes as “thinking with my eyes about the country around me.” In unflinching essays like “Black Body” and “The White Savior Industrial Complex,” he examines contemporary perceptions of race, invoking the work of James Baldwin along the way.

An understated and lyrical stylist, Cole combines the rigor of a critic with the curiosity of Everyman. “We are creatures of private conventions,” he writes. “But we are also looking for ways to enlarge our coasts.” This collection provides a way.

—J U L I E H A L E

FOR THE LOVE OF MONEY

By Sam Polk

Scribner $25, 288 pages ISBN 9781476785981 Audio, eBook available MEMOIR

THEY LEFT US EVERYTHING

By Plum Johnson

Putnam $26, 288 pages ISBN 9780399184093 Audio, eBook available FAMILY

One’s 30s might seem a little early to write a memoir, but Sam Polk has done a lot of living in his 35 years.

For the Love of Money opens with the moment in 2011 when Polk learned that his annual hedge-fund bonus would be $3.6 million—and he was furious that it wasn’t twice as much. He then backs up to describe the steps and missteps that brought him to that point.

Polk and his twin brother, Ben, grew up in a tumultuous household in Los Angeles where there was never enough money and their narcissistic dad held sway, often abusively. Overweight and socially unskilled, both brothers were bullied until they took up wrestling, a pursuit that led Polk to Columbia University. But at Columbia, Polk descended into binge drinking, drug use and bulimia. After breaking into a dormmate’s room and stealing pot, he was asked to leave the university.

Still, Polk was competitive and ambitious, and he managed to get hired as an analyst at Bank of America, where he traded bonds and credit default swaps (CDS), and then snagged a trader position at a premier hedge fund. He’d “made it”—still in his 20s, he had an enormous Manhattan loft and a beautiful girlfriend. But he slowly came to terms with ambition’s underside: his addiction to drugs, alcohol and porn, estrangement from Ben and crippling envy. With the help of a counselor and his first boss, now a mentor, Polk gained sobriety and repaired his relationships.

Polk’s redemptive one-step-forward, one-step-back story, along with his insider’s view of Wall Street and the larger issues of income inequality, make for a memoir that’s not only revealing but also timely.

Which is harder to come to terms with: a 23-room clapboard mansion filled to bursting with “stuff,” or 60-plus years of complicated family relationships? Plum Johnson tackles both in They Left Us Everything, a memoir that’s both humorous and thoughtful.

An artist and former publisher, Johnson doesn’t seem particularly well suited to preside over the emptying of the rambling lakefront house in Oakville, Ontario, when her widowed mother dies at 93.

But she tackles the task with gusto, moving in for well over a year (the original plan was six weeks) and getting down to the business of making it presentable enough to put on the market.

It should be noted that Johnson’s mother was a character, in every sense of the word. She’s very much alive in the hilarious first chapter, which baby boomers caring for elderly parents can instantly relate to, and remains a strong presence throughout the book. So, for that matter, does Johnson’s father, who ran the family with an iron fist until falling victim to Alzheimer’s disease. Inevitably, Johnson’s clearing out of the family home becomes intertwined with better understanding her parents.

Some things (plastic bananas, old oxygen tanks, etc.) simply get tossed, while others are divvied up among siblings in a ritual akin to the National Football League draft.

But rest assured, there are plenty of treasures—chief among them a trove of 2,000 letters written by Johnson’s mother, plus wartime letters between her parents. Understanding was there all along, it turns out, somewhere between the canned tomatoes and the boxes of National Geographic magazines.

—SARAH MCCRAW CROW

—KEITH HERRELL

q&a

PLUM JOHNSON

BY KEITH HERRELL

What remains

T

asked with cleaning out her late parents’ house, Plum Johnson made some surprising discoveries, which she chronicles with wit and insight in They Left Us Everything.

© CARTER JOHNSON

NONFICTION

There are multiple ways to interpret the book’s title. What does it mean to you?

When Mum and Dad died, I rolled my eyes at all their junk and thought: Oh jeez . . . they left us everything. But once we took the time to go through it, I understood the history we’d been given, and I thought: Wow—they left us everything! So the irony of the phrase stayed with me.

What was the best advice you got during the process? The worst?

The best advice was: Forgive yourself and forgive your parents, because everybody did the best they could. My brothers and I also made a pact that material possessions aren’t worth fighting over; relationships are more important.

They Left Us Everything is dedicated to your children. Did this experience inspire you to make sure your affairs are more settled so they won’t have to go through what you went through?

No! The message is exactly the opposite: “Don’t self-edit.” I’m leaving my mess for my children to sort through. Hopefully, they’ll find out things about me that I never wanted them to know. We all have foibles that we try to hide from our children when we’re raising them.

But it’s helpful for them to discover these things, especially when they look in the mirror and realize they’ve become us! I just hope I’m dead when they write their books.

You probably thought you had achieved closure with your demanding father, who died years earlier than your mother. What was it like to rekindle all those memories?

I don’t look for closure, because I’ve learned that relationships continue even after death. I made peace with Dad during his slow descent into Alzheimer’s. We had 15 years of gentleness, which was lovely.

If your parents were still alive and you could ask questions of them, what would you ask?

I would probe more deeply into their relationships with their own parents. I never asked those questions, and I wish I had. After Mum died, I found all these letters written to her by her own mother, and they were dated throughout her childhood. This surprised me. I didn’t know her mother had been so frequently absent.

What’s it been like to become a first-time author at the age of 68?

Do you have more books on the horizon?

I’ve always been a late-bloomer. Sometimes confidence comes late in life. I had a high school teacher who used to pound on her desk and shout, “Don’t write until you have something to say!” She effectively shut me up for the next 50 years. I kept asking myself, “Is this worth saying? Is that worth saying?” I used to look at all the piles of books on remainder tables—each one representing five years of someone’s life— and think, why bother? But this book just burst forth. It unplugged a cork of non-confidence. Now I have so much to say I can Visit BookPage.com to read more of our Q&A with Plum Johnson. hardly wait to tell it all.

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TEEN

Bound by more than sisterly love

GEMINI

REVIEW BY DIANE COLSON

Hailey and Clara are conjoined at the hip, back-to-back, with guts “as tangled together as a vat of discarded Christmas tree lights, and partially fused.” Beyond that, they are normal 17-year-old sisters, with loving parents and good friends. But it’s pretty hard for people to look beyond that. Despite the pains their parents took to raise them in rural California, away from gawkers and media hounds, Hailey and Clara know they are not normal. If Hailey were normal, for instance, she could go to the art summer intensive in San Francisco. She wouldn’t need to worry about Clara’s terror of new places, where people stare and point phones and make the same unoriginal, lewd comments. Clara, for her part, is beginning to wonder about surgical separation, because what guy would want a girl with a sister on her back?

With her debut novel, Sonya Mukherjee sensitively envisions how two conjoined sisters grow through their high school years. As each

By Sonya Mukherjee Simon & Schuster, $17.99, 336 pages twin narrates alternating chapters, readers quickly understand that ISBN 9781481456777, eBook available Hailey and Clara are different people. Hailey is sarcastic and arty, while Ages 14 and up Clara dreams of constellations to explore. And yet the intimacy of their relationship, the way they have learned to walk together, to sit and FICTION sleep together, is extraordinary. Nothing is easily resolved here. There are achingly huge decisions and risks ahead for the twins.

This is recommended reading for fans of thought-provoking novels such as Luanne Rice’s The Secret Language of Sisters or Amélie Sam’s I Love I Hate I Miss My Sister.

ALL WE HAVE LEFT

By Wendy Mills

Bloomsbury $17.99, 368 pages ISBN 9781619633438 eBook available Ages 13 and up FICTION

Wendy Mills’ latest novel is a haunting story of hope amid heartbreak and hatred.

The year is 2001. Alia, a 16-yearold Muslim, is hoping to apply to a college that will help fulfill her dream of becoming a comic book artist, but her parents don’t support her choice. In a last-ditch effort to persuade her father, Alia heads to the World Trade Center North Tower, where he works. She is unaware that her life is about to change drastically, especially when she encounters Travis.

Fifteen years later, 16-year-old

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Jesse struggles with the hate-filled environment that has affected her family since the tragic death of her brother, Travis. Jesse’s decision to follow the wrong crowd leads not only to community service at a mosque and an eye-opening learning experience about Islam, but also to the truth about her brother.

Leading up to the 15th anniversary of the horrific events of 9/11, Mills’ compelling novel offers a stark look at disturbingly prevalent issues of religious and ethnic stereo­typing and xenophobia. The split-narrative storyline reveals that Alia and Jesse have more in common than their familial and religious beliefs seem to indicate. As their stories build and merge, Mills highlights the power of the human spirit that prevails “even in the face of incomprehensible evil”—a theme that the author hopes “the children of today and tomorrow will understand about the day the world changed.”

—ANITA LOCK

RIVERKEEP

By Martin Stewart Viking $17.99, 416 pages ISBN 9781101998298 Audio, eBook available Ages 12 and up FANTASY

The Fobisher men have been tending the river for generations, keeping it clear of ice and weeds and hauling corpses from its depths. As soon as Wulliam turns 16, he will become the new Riverkeep. But, just a few days before his birthday, Wull’s father is pulled underwater, and when he surfaces, he’s no longer himself. Wull sets out in search of the mysterious sea-dwelling creature that may hold the key to saving his father.

Martin Stewart’s debut novel, inspired by the real-life Glasgow rivermen, is equal parts adven-

ture, magic and a sweet tribute to growing up. New companions Mix and Tillinghast—who immediately throw Wull off course by claiming seats on his boat—add a necessary touch of comedy and camaraderie.

Stewart’s sharp prose fluctuates between laugh-out-loud funny and seriously poignant as Wull reconciles his sense of duty with his deep-seated yearning to help others. Though the narrative drags occasionally through convoluted subplots, Riverkeep is a perfect read for teens looking for a bit of adventure to end their summers.

—SARAH WEBER

ENTER TITLE HERE

By Rahul Kanakia Disney-Hyperion $17.99, 352 pages ISBN 9781484723876 eBook available Ages 14 and up FICTION

Indian-American Reshma Kapoor isn’t the smartest or the most beloved at her Silicon Valley high school, but she is the best.

Through careful study and manipulation of the grading system, she has become valedictorian. But with sub-standard SAT scores and meager extracurriculars, she’s not the ideal student for Stanford, her dream school. After her op-ed is published by the Huffington Post and a literary agent contacts her, Reshma realizes that she finally has her hook into Stanford. She will write a YA novel, using herself as the protagonist. She’s willing to do anything—from blackmailing her way into a friendship to threatening to sue anyone who might oppose her—to move her story arc along.

Rahul Kanakia’s debut is a definitive metafiction experience. Readers will question whether Reshma is a satirical antihero who reflects today’s convoluted race relations, education system and need for fame, or simply a teen who wants acceptance and love. Readers may not always like Reshma, but they won’t forget her story.

—ANGELA LEEPER

children’s

KELLY BARNHILL

A social crusader with magic on her mind

C

hildren’s novelist Kelly Barnhill had been thinking about her fourth novel for months but wasn’t sure where to set her story. That’s also when, after 15 years of marriage and three children, she and her husband decided it was finally time to take their honeymoon. A trip to Costa Rica solved both issues.

There, the two former park rangers spent a thrilling day hiking in the volcanic Rincón de la Vieja National Park, where they had to carefully avoid poisonous fumes, sinkholes and steam vents spewing boiling mud. “I’d never been in a landscape like that before,” Barnhill says, speaking by phone from her home in Minneapolis. “Rivers would just sort of erupt out of the side of the mountain and then go into a hole and disappear.”

The next morning Barnhill woke early, grabbed some coffee and her purple notebook and began to write. “Suddenly I realized my characters were on a volcano, and I wasn’t expecting them to be there,” she recalls. “And once I began, it was like it was always meant to be.

I couldn’t imagine that story being in any other landscape.”

“That story” turned into The Girl Who Drank the Moon, an adventure-filled fantasy featuring a town whose leaders order that a baby be sacrificed each year to a supposedly evil witch named Xan. But in-

THE GIRL WHO DRANK THE MOON

By Kelly Barnhill

Algonquin, $16.95, 400 pages ISBN 9781616205676, eBook available Ages 10 and up

MIDDLE GRADE

stead of harming these babies, Xan actually delivers them to families on the other side of the forest.

“Xan was doing what she truly thought was the right thing,” Barnhill says, “placing these babies with families, but she was unwittingly allowing this terrible injustice to persist.”

One day, Xan accidentally feeds one of these babies moonlight, imbuing her with magic powers. Xan decides to raise the child, whom she names Luna, with the help of a swamp monster named Glerk and a “Perfectly Tiny Dragon” called Fyrian. In the lovingly chronicled years that follow the baby-snatching, Xan desperately tries to shield Luna from the magical powers that will erupt when she turns 13, thus leading to an inevitable clash of forces in the novel’s cataclysmic conclusion, bringing together a large cast of characters followed through 48 chapters.

“It’s an odd little thing,” Barnhill says of her latest book, which follows 2014’s The Witch’s Boy. “I’m kind of surprised that people are enjoying it. I really thought I would be the only one.”

For a novel so clearly based in fantasy, a variety of its central elements arose from Barnhill’s real-life social concerns. Xan, Luna, Glerk and Fyrian form what Barnhill calls “that odd little family at the edge of the crater,” and when creating them, the author drew from observations she made while teaching homeless youth in Minneapolis years ago. “When you work in those contexts,” she notes, “you see the different ways in which families organize themselves. This notion of family is much more flexible and fluid than we tend to think.”

The author describes a sad reality behind one of the novel’s most arresting scenes, when the town

rulers, known as the Protectorate, arrive to pry baby Luna from the arms of her mother, who tries to escape by climbing high into the rafters of her home. Barnhill acknowledges that this heartbreaking confrontation was difficult to write, and that the desperate mother reminds her of a mom she once encountered while working at a battered woman’s shelter whose child was seriously ill and being denied medical treatment. “It was like she filled “Everything up the entire will alter room,” Barnhill when you recalls. “I was follow this 16 at the time, and I felt like trail of her shoulders breadcrumbs were touching into the forest. the ceiling.”

And we tell Barnhill’s own childthese stories hood changed to remind in seventh ourselves it’s grade when OK.” her mother helped rescue her from a school bullying situation. “Gosh, I was a lonely kid,” she recalls. “I was socially awkward. I just never felt OK in my own body. I was easily targetable.”

When her mother got wind of her daughter’s distress, she transferred her to a small, all-girls Catholic school, where she was taught by nuns who were “go-getters,” and the principal had walked arm in arm with Martin Luther King Jr. “It was a magical year for me,” Barnhill remembers. “It was the first time I had seen that kind of activism that was part of everybody’s story.”

Just as Luna’s magic reveals itself at age 13, Barnhill’s own special gift was ignited about this time, thanks to a nun named Sister Geron at her new school, who required her

© BRUCE SILCOX

INTERVIEW BY ALICE CARY

students to write a short story each week. “I had this inexhaustible well of story ideas inside me,” Barnhill says. “I could just sit down and write a new one and then write another one. Just the practice of writing woke up something in me.”

Despite her love of writing, Barnhill was a delayed reader, not reading at all until the end of third grade, nor on her own until fifth grade. However, she loved listening, and her father read often to his five children, especially from a mammoth volume of fairy tales that became so tattered that he rebound it using an old checkerboard and duct tape, which his children then dubbed “the Checkered Book.”

Barnhill notes parallels between the “metamorphosis narratives” of fantasy and fairy tales and adolescence, pointing out that such similarities are one reason why these stories are so appealing to kids.

That’s certainly the case in The Girl Who Drank the Moon, in which Luna’s magic so vividly erupts as she turns 13.

“The deep dark woods [are] dangerous, and it’s scary, but you have to go in there and you are going to be irrevocably changed,” Barnhill says. “Everything will alter when you follow this trail of breadcrumbs into the forest. And we tell these stories to remind ourselves that it’s OK. You do make it to the other side, and you are OK, even if you are altered.”

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reviews T PI OP CK

CHILDREN’S

LUCY

Chasing dreams, day by day REVIEW BY NORAH PIEHL

Parents of children in the early elementary grades often feel pressure to “graduate” their kids to chapter books as soon as they begin learning to read. Randy Cecil’s Lucy offers a heartfelt reminder that the picture book form can remain relevant and even necessary long after the preschool years.

At the beginning of the book, we meet solitary Eleanor Wische and her father, Sam, an aspiring juggler, as well as a nameless stray dog whom Eleanor feeds breakfast scraps. The three are united in their loneliness and in their desire to find a way to belong. Over the course of several seemingly ordinary days, the three of them pursue extraordinary dreams—and discover their need for one another.

Lucy is long for a picture book, more than 100 pages divided into

By Randy Cecil four “Acts” (perhaps to appease the chapter book crowd). Each Act Candlewick, $19.99, 144 pages opens with an old-fashioned city streetscape, and then each following ISBN 9780763668082, ages 5 to 8 page includes a bit of text—from a paragraph to just a line or two— PICTURE BOOK accompanied by a sepia-toned illustration, a small vignette whose subtleties will reward careful observers.

The story, too, is full of charming details for careful readers and listeners. Cecil uses repetition to tell his story, but the repetitions are full of tiny tweaks and twists that keep readers guessing (and sometimes giggling) and propel the story to its cozy, satisfying end.

Illustration copyright © 2016 by Randy Cecil. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Candlewick Press, Somerville, MA.

COYOTE MOON

By Maria Gianferrari

Illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline

PICTURE BOOK

Roaring Book $17.99, 32 pages ISBN 9781626720411 eBook available Ages 4 to 8

Her intense, yellow eyes scanning the night, Mother Coyote is watching and following and digging and leaping. With pups waiting in her den, the success of her nightly hunt is vital. A window into a rarely seen world, Coyote Moon is a unique find.

Gifted storyteller Maria Gianferrari narrates Coyote’s story with a directness that echoes Coyote’s serious mission, and her descriptive language and subtle use of alliteration make for a captivating read-aloud. Renowned illustrator Bagram Ibatoulline skillfully brings us along for the hunt with art as

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lifelike as a photograph, but with an ethereal edge. Ibatoulline leads us through the richly detailed night, peering through brush and hiding from Coyote’s prey. He opens up a moonlit world that is far from monotone, with texture and layers that give us a unique and intimate look at our world when it belongs to those who depend on the night. Gianferrari’s narrative is vivid enough to stand without any images, and Ibatoulline’s art would make a lovely wordless picture book—but woven together, they tell a story that is striking and transfixing.

A truthful but non-gory look at the circle of life, Coyote Moon concludes with two pages of facts, making it a fascinating and useful book for libraries and classrooms.

From cover to cover, from sunset to moonrise, Coyote Moon will mesmerize and intrigue—and have you peering into the nighttime for your own coyote glimpse.

—J I L L L O R E N Z I N I

SEVEN AND A HALF TONS OF STEEL

By Janet Nolan

introduces us to the USS New York, the Navy ship whose bow is made from a beam from the World Trade Center towers. The book’s title comes from the beam’s weight, seven and a half tons of steel, which came to represent the resilience of the American people in the face of such a horrific tragedy. The steel was transferred to Louisiana for its metamorphosis into the bow of the Navy ship. When Hurricane Katrina hit, it ruined the homes of many of the ship’s builders, and Nolan briefly covers this tragedy as well.

Nolan’s recounting of the ship’s journey back to New York for the 10th anniversary of 9/11 is reverent, as is her handling of the terror that spawned it. Gonzalez’s cinematic illustrations capture a wide range of emotions with grandeur and warmth. The book lacks sources at its close, but it does conclude with more facts about the ship.

This is a stirring tribute.

—J U L I E D A N I E L S O N

CLICK HERE TO START

By Denis Markell

Delacorte $16.99, 320 pages ISBN 9781101931875 Audio, eBook available Ages 8 to 12 MIDDLE GRADE

Illustrated by Thomas Gonzalez

PICTURE BOOK

Peachtree $17.95, 36 pages ISBN 9781561459124 Ages 6 to 10

Three striking spreads open this well-paced book: First, readers see a spread dominated by clear skies, revealing a boy who looks up at an airplane that’s heading toward the Twin Towers. The second spread shows a crowded NYC street from the point of view of a driver, and in the car’s side mirror, we see a plane descending in the air. On the title page spread itself, we see a plane as its nose just touches the first tower on that fateful day in 2001. Illustrator Thomas Gonzalez does much to establish a mood of impending doom before the text even begins.

But the mood quickly shifts to one of triumph. Janet Nolan

Ted Gerson has honed his skills at online escape-the-room games to extreme sharpness—nothing gets past him. When his great uncle dies and leaves him the contents of his apartment, Ted has high hopes; although it looks like a hoarder’s paradise, he thinks there might be some actual treasure from his great uncle’s service in World War II. His mother is more concerned that this was a practical joke intended to get the place cleaned out for free.

But as Ted, his best friend, Caleb, and new-girl-in-town Isabel get to work, they find that the apartment itself is eerily similar to an escapethe-room game.

Debut author Denis Markell keeps the mystery interesting by introducing bad guys who might actually be good, and there are

CHILDREN’S many nods to history and classical literature mixed in with the puzzle-solving fun. Information about Japanese internment camps is introduced gently enough that some readers will be inspired to learn more on their own.

Click Here to Start combines history, mystery and friendship, and fans of Ellen Raskin or Blue Balliett will find it irresistible.

—HEATHER SEGGEL

MAKOONS

By Louise Erdrich HarperCollins $16.99, 176 pages ISBN 9780060577933 eBook available Ages 8 to 12 MIDDLE GRADE

food, hides and more, Makoons and Chickadee adopt an orphaned buffalo calf. The brothers name him Fly, and his ultimate fate adds to the novel’s many tightly woven threads.

It’s no wonder Erdrich’s writing is so authentic; her maternal great-grandfather was part of some of the last buffalo hunts along the Milk River in Montana. Erdrich also includes her own illustrations and a glossary and pronunciation guide of Ojibwe words.

—ALICE CARY

meet KENARD PAK

the title of your Q: What’s

new book?

would you describe Q: How

the book?

has been the biggest influence on your work?

Q: Who

THE MINISTRY OF SUITS

By Paul Gamble

Feiwel & Friends $16.99, 384 pages ISBN 9781250076823 eBook available Ages 9 to 13

was your favorite subject in school? Why? Q: What

MIDDLE GRADE

For readers unfamiliar with Louise Erdrich’s Birchbark House series, Makoons, the fifth book, is a fine place to start, standing well on its own while continuing the narrative.

Think Little House on the Prairie from a Native-American point of view. Like Laura Ingalls Wilder, Erdrich seamlessly blends fascinating details of everyday life and historical facts about an Ojibwe tribe living in the Great Plains of Dakota Territory in 1866.

While the series’ first three books center on a girl named Omakayas, books four and five follow her twin sons, Chickadee and Makoons.

In book five, Makoons has largely recovered from a serious illness that developed while his brother was kidnapped, and now these two reunited halves of one soul are learning to be buffalo hunters. The book starts with Makoons’ ominous vision that he and his brother will become strong hunters, but will never be able to return to their beloved homeland back east and will be able to help save some, but not all, of their family. Despite these forebodings, Makoons is never bleak or harsh. Its twin heroes are playful young men who love a good prank, which means there’s plenty of fun in their saga.

After the big hunt, while everyone is turning 30 killed buffalo into

Children have a wealth of meaningful, important books from which to choose, but sometimes kids just need an insanely funny read.

“Nothing too sad” is a request I have heard on many an occasion. Debut author Paul Gamble delivers on this request with The Ministry of SUITs. Set in Northern Ireland, the story begins with Jack Pearse and his best friend, David, as their school bus is stopped by a bear in the road. Jack, always curious, gets out to see what’s going on. After fending off the bear with a wooden chair, Jack is invited by a mysterious man to join the Ministry of SUITs (Strange, Unusual, and Impossible Things). At first, Jack isn’t so sure about joining, but when a suspicious “supporter” of his school starts installing thick carpets on the floors and providing new uniforms that are exactly like their old ones, Jack figures it might be time to investigate.

Gamble packs in all the weird things you can think of: dinosaurs, pirates, dimensional time shifting and even Cthulhu. Oddball footnotes and excerpts from the Ministry handbook add to the overall inanity, making this the perfect laugh-out-loud read.

—J E N N I F E R B R U E R K I T C H E L

was your childhood hero?

Q: Who

books did you enjoy as a child?

Q: What

one thing would you like to learn to do?

Q: What

Q: What message would you like to send to young readers?

GOODBYE SUMMER, HELLO AUTUMN Artist Kenard Pak has worked for animation studios such as DreamWorks and Disney and has illustrated several children’s books. He greets the changing seasons with his new picture book, Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn (Holt, $17.99, 32 pages, ISBN 9781627794152, ages 4 to 7). Pak lives in San Francisco with his wife.

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