The Demon of Unrest
Erik Larson

I’ve been listening to The Demon of Unrest.

I had a chance to meet Erik Larson not long before this book was released, which was great fun! In part, Larson was thrilled to not only be out and about after the pandemic, but to be out and about after spending so much time with Civil War research DURING the pandemic! The audio book is narrated by Will Patton (yes, the very-famous movie actor Will Patton) whose gentle voice is perfect. (Pro tip: Listening at 1.1 speed is just as good as 1.0 speed and you shave time.)

Erik Larson with booksellers (Jen is second from left.)

Wandering Souls
Cecile Pin

In June, the TED group read and discussed Wandering Souls.

This is one of the best books I’ve read. In the 1970s (post-US/Vietnam War) Vietnamese siblings Anh, Minh, and Thanh are the first of their family to board a boat and leave Vietnam on the first leg of a trip that will eventually land them in the United States. The plan is for the rest of the family, their parents and younger siblings, to follow on another boat. The rest of the family does board a subsequent boat, but there’s an accident and all of them die – this is not a spoiler, the title of the book Wandering Souls refers to those deceased family members who are, according to Vietnamese tradition, trapped as ghosts on earth since they did not receive a proper burial. The living children manage with the oldest, Anh, having to fill in as surrogate parent for her younger brothers. Most of the book is narrated by the three living survivors, but occasionally we hear from one of the “wandering souls.” The narration of the deceased reads like poetry and to my surprise, even the book group members that don’t care for poetry really liked those passages. Despite covering 75 years, give or take, the book is a surprising 221 pages and reads quickly. One of my favorite moments in the book is when the three siblings experience snow for the first time—I won’t spoil it, but if/when you read it, let’s talk about it! (Psst, we have a couple of used copies available in store.)

Unwillable
Jackie Stebbins

Jackie was one of the authors we hosted at Author Fest this year and I was so intrigued by her book that I couldn’t resist giving it a read! Unwillable is her memoir (so far!) of learning at age 34 that she had a rare brain illness. Intermixed is her stark honesty about her obsessive tendencies (which leads to being a workaholic, an exercise-holic, and other “—holic” habits.)
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the read so far—Jackie is about 10 years younger than I am and in some ways, wildly different from me, and yet, we also have some things in common (we both earned black belts in Tae Kwon Do, we both attended law school, and both abandoned at a young age the desire to be a motivational speaker.) It’s not just our customers who discover new books/authors at Author Fest!

Although the book is relatively short, it explores many topics, including the lingering effects of the trauma of war, the complexities of adoption, the difficulties immigrants experience, the impact of secrets within a family, conflicting loyalties and the toll they take on individuals.

Looking for a great story that will make you think? Try The Dig!

Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty
Patrick Radden Keefe

If you are someone like me, saddened yet morbidly fascinated by the opioid crisis, then you should consider reading this history of the family behind the drug that initiated this particular addiction issue America faces. The first section outlines the life and legacy of the first members of the Sackler family in the U.S. before moving propulsively in later sections to follow the era of their pharmaceutical ascendancy and eventual fall from grace. I was disgusted to learn about the intentionally deceptive marketing of Oxycontin towards doctors as unlikely to be habit-forming and how, even facing lawsuits from numerous states and with years of incontrovertible data about the harm caused by these pain pills, the family and representatives of the company acknowledged no guilt or wrongdoing. I have a hard time reading very dense, academic nonfiction and I appreciated how authoritative (there are many pages of citations and notes to peruse) this book was while still being digestible.

Making Love with the Land
Joshua Whitehead

This collection is technically labeled essays but goes beyond the colonization of genre in what Whitehead describes as his unique style of “biostory.” Whitehead writes in a free-form, poetic style that is heightened in poignancy by his lovely narration on the audiobook I listened to. Each section meditates on aspects of the author's life, ranging from his identity as a Two-Spirit Indigenous person to the pandemic to linguistics to racism and so much more. This collection is short but requires several reading sessions to let the impact of his expansive musings permeate. I immediately ordered Whitehead's previous fiction novel and poetry collection because I was taken with his mastery of language and intentional dismissal of literary conventions.

The Comfort of Crows, A Backyard Year
Margaret Renkl

I bought this book last year, at the end of December, and I have been reading it every week ever since. I’m not done; I’m not supposed to be done.

Margaret Renkl divides the year into weeks. She marks each week with a beautifully scripted observation of her yard, her neighborhood, her garden, and her community. She writes of the tadpoles and birds and plants and spiders of her garden. She writes of time passing and life changing, of grief and love.

The book is illustrated by 52 original watercolors painted by her brother, Billy Renkl, and they are enchanting. I just finished The Season of Singing, Summer, week 1. This week is illustrated with a lush green cacophony of leaves that do in fact look like summer.

Ann Patchett calls this book “a howling love letter to the world.” I have nothing to add.

Note: lovers of The Comfort of Crows will be happy to learn that a companion volume, Leaf, Cloud, Crow: A Weekly Backyard Journal will be released in October. The publisher says it will be “A beautifully illustrated journal to guide your observations of nature wherever you find it—in gardens and yards, city parks and vacant lots, or the sky—enhanced by inspiring prompts and the wisdom of beloved and bestselling author Margaret Renkl.”

Wool
Hugh Howey

If you are streaming the Silo Series, you should be aware that it’s based on a trilogy of books: Wool is the first. Not only will reading the novels mean you don’t have to wait for future episodes, but this book is so good I can’t imagine that the TV version is as well done. (My bias.)

This is a dystopian world. Everyone in it lives in the silo, with a central circular staircase connecting about 150 levels. The top level has a view of the ruined, toxic landscape outside. There are very strict rules governing all aspects of life, in order to keep the population in check. If one dares to question how things are, one might be sent outside to clean the cameras that provide the view. Then the gasses seep into the helmet, and the cleaner falls, becoming another “boulder” in the view.

Howey is a master of suspense. And the world he creates is thought provoking. I can’t wait to open the second book in the trilogy.

James
Percival Everett

It starts as a rather straight-forward retelling of Huckleberry Finn from the POV of Jim, Huck’s fellow-traveler on his raft journey on the Mississippi. This alone would have been enough, especially in the hands of Everett (the author Erasure, the book the film American Fiction is based on). But Everett gradually takes us away from the original plot details of Huckleberry Finn, spinning a fantasy based on what should have been. It’s a marvel.

The Magician’s Assistant
Ann Patchett

The novel opens when the magician, her husband, dies. She’s been in love with him for decades: they get married only when HIV takes his true love, a man who is a close friend to her. The three have been living together in a big, beautiful home. Now she’s on her own. She learns a great deal when the will is read: she is the main heir, but there’s a surprise that takes her down unexpected paths that help her find her feet again. The premise sounds sad, but the book is not. It’s a wonderful reading experience by one of our finest authors.

The Temple of Fortuna
Elodie Harper

This is the final novel in the trilogy that begins with The Wolf Den. When we’re first introduced to Amara she’s an enslaved prostitute in Pompeii. Through her struggles we see life in the worst and best that Pompeii, and then Rome, contain. In The Temple of Fortuna Amara returns to Pompeii and renews her relationships with her friends, and her nemesis Felix, just in time for… well it’s not exactly a spoiler as you know it’s coming. But what I didn’t expect was the vivid description of what it must have felt like, and what those who struggled to escape had to endure. This trilogy is highly recommended for those who value historic fiction.

The Silence Factory
Bridget Collins

 In 1820, a young Englishman and his wife come to a small remote Greek island, Hira. The tiny white-washed fishing village, perched above a turquoise blue Aegean cove, 1820 something, with whispered rumors of a rare spider, that seemingly has something to do with silence. [Gentle Reader: I was hooked!] And it just got better! 19th century colonial capitalism runs smack up against the mythical semi-magical birth of human understanding of the world. Not enough attention is paid to the human sub-conscious' interconnection to our psychic pre-history. 'Flight or fight' response, and its like only hint at what silently lies deep in our psychic selves. Think of our deep connection to sound. Nature sounds, music, speech? Why would there be less of a connection to silence? If this interests you, you will love this book.

Note: this book will be released August 20 and may be pre-ordered.

Station Eleven
Emily St. John Mandel

Recently I've read two novels having to do with an apocalyptic plague bringing about severely altered futures. Emily St. John Mandel's, Station Eleven, is the most recent. In a world where everything is shutting down, and as 99% of the human population dies, Mandel follows the lives of the attendees of a Hollywood dinner party. Their individual experiences of events and the curious ways their lives interconnect unfold. I found myself feeling unusually empathetic with the characters, on one level, but also deeply interested in the way the author imagined the event. In most of these stories, there's the event, and then the story centers on the aftermath. But little is said about the transition (the mass dying) and its psychic rippling effects on people, as it happens. Written in 2014, with no intimation of Covid looming ahead, there's an interesting parallel with our recent shared experience. Suppose Covid had been as deadly as the story's Georgian Flu.... to me, it seems uncomfortably possible, and that nearness had me on the edge of my seat.