While we all want to read what everyone else is reading and talking about, sometimes it can be just as fulfilling to read a book that doesn’t receive as much attention as one of these big blockbusters.
Here are some recommendations for some recent books that have you might have missed:
If you are like me and fondly remember the Choose Your Own Adventures Books of your childhood and wish someone would write one for adults, then you are in luck! Million Little Mistakes by Heather Mcelhatton is a new book in which, after winning $22 million in the lottery, you get to pick which direction the narrative will go. Will you end up married to George Clooney? Or will you go on a wild spending spree and lose all your money?
Like life itself, the course the book takes depends on your choices.
Posted under Authors, Books, Fiction, HumorAre you one of those people who habitually re-reads favorite books? I’ve heard tales of this and I’ve always thought it strange, with such an abundance of new books to discover! However, I just re-read (actually listened to) a book I remembered loving from years ago but didn’t really remember. It was Stones for Ibarra by Harriet Doerr, and I’m so glad I did because it was like visiting an old friend and meeting a new one at the same time.
More and more, because my memory is not exactly ziplock fresh anymore, and even those youthfully sharper memories fade over time, I find myself wanting to re-read some old favorites.
In recent years I’ve re-read The Catcher in the Rye and To Kill a Mockingbird. A few others I’d like to re-read: A Girl Named Zippy by Haven Kimmel, Gone to Soldiers by Marge Piercy, and Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson.
Movie trailers have gone a long way toward emphasizing a film’s strengths – or covering up its utter awfulness. A recent trend is to do the same for books, and many authors have taken to YouTube to help pitch their upcoming works to the masses.
One recent example that deserves particular mention is the trailer for Gary Shteyngart’s Super Sad True Love Story. Shteyngart has always been hilarious as a writer (many moments in Absurdistan left me gasping for breath), and the trailer demonstrates a similar talent. It features cameos from a number of contemporary literature’s giants, including Jeffrey Eugeniedes, Mary Gaitskill, and Jay McInerney, not to mention an actor famous for playing a certain Spider-villain.
Enjoy the trailer below. Have you seen any other notable book trailers? Share your favorites in the comments.
The recent issue of The New Yorker – June 14 – 21, 2010 names whom they consider to be the most promising young writers under 40 years old. The last time the magazine did this was in 1999. See if you’ve read any of these authors and whether you agree or disagree with the magazine’s picks. I’m not a list fanatic, but it can be a nice way to discover new authors. Did they leave your favorite author out?
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, 32
Chris Adrian, 39
Daniel Alarcón, 33
David Bezmozgis, 37
Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, 38
Joshua Ferris, 35
Jonathan Safran Foer, 33
Nell Freudenberger, 35
Rivka Galchen, 34
Nicole Krauss, 35
Yiyun Li, 37
Dinaw Mengestu, 31
Philipp Meyer, 36
C. E. Morgan, 33
Téa Obreht, 24
Z Z Packer, 37
Karen Russell, 28
Salvatore Scibona, 35
Gary Shteyngart, 37
Wells Tower, 37
Just for comparison’s sake, here is the list of authors selected in 1999
George Saunders
David Foster Wallace
Sherman Alexie
Rick Moody
A.M. Homes
Allegra Goodman
William T. Vollmann
Antonya Nelson
Chang-rae Lee
Michael Chabon
Ethan Canin
Donld Antrim
Tony Earley
Jeffrey Eugenides
Junot Diaz
Jonathan Franzen
Edwidge Danticat
Jhumpa Lahiri
Nathan Englander
Matthew Klam
On the wait list for The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest? Well, Stieg Larsson is not the only Scandinavian author who writes fast paced, gripping mysteries. Try one of these new mysteries set in Denmark, Iceland, Norway, or Sweden and maybe that wait list won’t seem so long after all.
For even more suggestions, consult our Scandinavian Sleuths reading list.
The Blackhawks could win the Stanley Cup tonight, so what better way to spend time before the first face off than to read a hockey-themed romance novel? Both Deirdre Martin and Rachel Gibson write several romances which feature hockey players as the heroes and where body checking has multiple meanings. These books are perfect if you are like me and don’t know a hat trick from a slap shot.
The Amazing Book Caper continues at the library, so sign up now at the Readers Services Desk for your summer reading excitement. If you are unsure of what book to read this summer, why not go along with this summer’s theme and try a classic mystery? One of my favorite classic mystery writers is someone, while extremely popular in her time, does not receive much recognition now. 
Mary Roberts Rinehart published her first book, The Circular Staircase, in 1907 and was an instant success. She pioneered the “had she but known” style of writing and the clichéd saying the “Butler did it” derives from her story The Door in which (spoiler alert) the butler is the culprit. SPL owns many of her books and I highly recommend The Album and The Frightened Wife, and other murder stories. Once you exhaust all her fiction, make sure that you read the biography that Charlotte MacLeod (another wonderful, if sadly overlooked, mystery writer) wrote on Mary Roberts Rinehart’s very interesting life.
Posted under Authors, Books, mystery
It’s always nice to be recognized by your peers. But what do you do when recognition comes in the form of livestock?
That’s what just happened to English novelist Ian McEwan, whose latest book Solar received the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction. The award, now in its 12th year, is given to the novel that best reflects the droll sensibilities of writer P.G. Wodehouse. Clearly, it’s an honor to have one’s work compared to the marvelously madcap Jeeves and Wooster books, especially for McEwan, whose Atonement was pretty much the opposite of hilarious. McEwan should be proud to know he can tickle the funny bone as well as he can tug on the heartstrings.
And now he’s got quite the reminder of his achievement, provided by the prize committee. A Gloucestershire Old Spot pig will take the name “Solar,” and it will join a literal stable of prize ungulates with names like Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi and Salmon Fishing in the Yemen.
To be fair, McEwan will also receive some fancy Champagne, and a complete set of the Wodehouse library. But we all know the real prize has four trotters and a curly tail.
If you like a little humor in your fiction, here are a few more titles to get you started:
What are your favorite comic novels?
Posted under Authors, Awards, Fiction, Humor
Seventy-four years ago today, Gone with the Wind was published. An instant best seller, this epic tale of love, war, and survival features one of literature’s most appealing character, Scarlett O’Hara. If you haven’t read Gone with the Wind or if you haven’t read it in a while, today is the perfect day to check it out. If reading GWTW, leaves you wanting to read more books set in the Civil War era, consult our Civil War fiction list.