PVLF 2025

Frontlist | Finding authors who won't disappoint you

Frontlist | Finding authors who won't disappoint you
on Jan 11, 2021

We frequently see online requests for good reading suggestions, and half the world pipes up, so there’s no need to reply — just read. There are a variety of choices and different preferences, so finding “the” book is always a game. A friend who reads only nonfiction claims he can’t understand how fiction fans benefit from what they read. Book clubs know better. The range of human emotion, need, greed and bleed in novels carries within them a wealth of humankind which is, to me, well worth exploring.

Many book club acquaintances read a variety of fiction and nonfiction, as alternating style cleanses the reading palate. Readers say it’s been difficult to delve very deeply into books this past year or so — a 2020 casualty — but fiction can unwind the private soul or put us in touch with others’ laughter and tears.

One may absorb more experience of history by reading historical fiction based on actual events. For instance, no two fictional accounts set in Nazi Germany are alike, so knowledge of its impacts on people can expand broadly through reading.

As 2020 slouches its way out of here, mostly to our great relief, we are anticipating a new year. Rather than designating the year’s “best” books — an exercise in personal preference, I’ll list some favorite authors, people whose work can be assured. Best is different for each of us. This list is by no means the last word on “best.” My favorites include the authors whose books I’ll pick up based solely on the author’s name, rather than the subject. They include (with some crossover):

Fiction:

Annie Proulx, Ann Patchett, Colson Whitehead, Marie Benedict, Jodi Picoult, Louise Erdrich, Celeste Ng, Sam Shepherd (plays)

Nonfiction:

David McCullough, Erik Larson, Laura Hillenbrand, Malcolm Gladwell, Ron Chernow, Jill Lepore, Dave Eggers, Michael Lewis, David Foster Wallace (and fiction), Katherine Boo, Susan Orlean.

Book club info, broadly available:

Barnes & Noble is sponsoring a virtual author appearance with Marie Benedict and interviewer Kate Quinn, live on its Facebook page at 4 p.m. Jan. 14. Benedict has written novels based on historical figures, like “The Only Woman in the Room,” about inventor and actress Hedy Lamarr’s life as a spy; “Lady Clementine,” about Winston Churchill’s wife, and “The Other Einstein,” about the unseen contributions of Einstein’s wife, Mitza. The author will talk about her latest, a take on the 11-day disappearance of suspense wizard Agatha Christie. Called “The Mystery of Mrs. Christie,” it’s based on a real event; the book is a historically detailed mystery.

Book clubs may find it interesting, even fun, to re-read Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” and then read Michael Farris Smith’s “Nick,” a different take on the narrator of “Gatsby” that puts the story in a different era and perspective. The story takes Nick Carraway from World War I battlefields to a Paris romance and the naughty streets of New Orleans. Readers will get to know him better. “Nick” has just been released.

Maybe for rabid fans?

The Harvard Lampoon’s send-off of Game of Thrones, dubbed “Lame of Thrones: The Final Book in a Song of Hot and Cold,” came out in November as a comic parody of the George R.R. Martin book and subsequent television series. In it, there’s more blood and guts, more sex and more vile language than you may have noticed on TV. Three astute, dedicated GOT fans spent time on it and all three panned it as a loser. This is the Lampoon’s first major parody in nearly a decade; they should have waited longer. Maybe if you’re teenage boy, it would be up your alley; otherwise, forget it.

New First Lady to speak:

Jill Biden, will address members of the American Library Association during their midwinter meeting, being held virtually this month. Dr. Biden is an author, educator and outspoken education advocate; she will be interviewed by the organization’s president Julius C. Jefferson Jr.

Area book club meetings:

“Exit West” by Mohsin Hamid is about a young couple living through a civil war in their city, who finally flee through a system of magical doors which take them to different locations around the globe. It is a love story and a tale of refugees in crisis all over the world. As well, William Shakespeare is a key player. This is a book selected as one of President Barack Obama’s best books read in 2017. The NOW Book Group will discuss it, via Zoom, at 7 p.m. Jan. 11. Their Feb. 9 selection is “Hamnet: A Novel of the Plague” by Maggie O’Farrell. The club notes that the book is in high demand on library wait lists.

Worcester Public Library’s Zoom book clubs are as follows: American History Book Discussion will feature “You Never Forget Your First” by Alexis Coe, noon Feb. 2; Romance Readers will meet at noon Jan. 12 to discuss “Get a Life, Chloe Brown” by Talia Hibbert; Science Fiction Book Club meets Jan. 19 to discuss Jonathan Lethem’s “Gun, With Occasional Music;” Great American Read Book Club meets at noon Jan. 26 to discuss Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein;” Murder by the Book mystery club meets at noon Jan. 27 to discuss “Faceless Killers” by Henning Mankell. All meetings are on Zoom. To register, look up the library’s adult classes and programs page online.

Source: Telegram.com