5 Books That Should Be On Your Radar: January 2015
By Daniel Ford
Every month, the Writer’s Bone crew reviews or previews books we've read or want to read. This series may or may not also serve as a confessional for guilty pleasures and hipster novels only the brave would attempt. Feel free to share your own suggestions in the comments section or tweet us @WritersBone.
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
I’ve spent a significant amount of time on trains throughout my life. Your mind wanders to some pretty strange places if you don’t have a traveling companion or you run out of reading material. After reading Paula Hawkins’ debut thriller, The Girl on the Train, I kicked myself for not writing down more of those train musings.
The novel, which centers around an alcoholic woman voyeuristically inserting herself into a grim love triangle (more accurately, a pentagon), is much better structured than Gone Girl and provides the reader with an ending infinitely more satisfying than the majority of popular thrillers. It’s the perfect popcorn read that has real depth to it. I was fully invested in all of the characters’ backstories, motives, and suspicions. Don’t wait for the beach weather, read this immediately (and plan on losing a few nights sleep while doing so).
My Sunshine Away by M.O. Walsh
I had never heard of M.O. Walsh or his novel, My Sunshine Away, before the book showed up at Writer's Bone HQ. After reading the dust cover and public relations material, Stephanie Schaefer said something that made me chuckle, “This sounds like something you would write.” Coming of age story that revolves around a despicable crime? That doesn’t sound like me at all…
Walsh’s crisp style and thought-provoking prose combines both literary fiction and a pulse-quickening thriller. Set in Baton Rouge, La., the novel explores the nature of “violent crime, unraveling families, and consuming adolescent love.” Fair warning, if you pick up this book in the store and read the first chapter, you’re going to end up buying it and throwing out the rest of your reading queue immediately.
While I didn’t know who Walsh was before My Sunshine Away made its way to my desk, I can safely say I’m not going to forget him going forward. My Sunshine Away goes on sale Feb. 10, 2014.
Brutal Youth by Anthony Breznican
I know you can’t judge a book by its cover, but, holy shit, this cover is all kinds of awesome. Better yet, there’s a well-crafted story inside! Inspired by the author’s adolescence spent in Western Pennsylvania, the novel follows the lives of three freshmen at St. Michael’s, a troubled Catholic school (is there any other kind?) known for “religious zealots fearful of public schools,” “violent delinquents,” a “declining reputation,” and “plunging enrollment.” Sign me up!
To pull a LeVar Burton, don’t take my word for it. Stephen King called the novel “funny and terrifying” and “a ‘Rebel Without A Cause’ for the 21st Century.”
Paul Revere’s Ride by David Hackett Fischer
If last month’s recommendation of A Midwife’s Tale was too obscure for you history readers out there, perhaps you’d be more interested in David Hackett Fischer’s Paul Revere’s Ride? While Fischer is better known for his excellent account of George Washington’s crossing the Delaware during the Revolutionary War, which is aptly titled Washington’s Crossing, his research into an often overlooked or sensationalized event refreshes one of the most critical times of our country’s existence. Revere, whose house is just a few blocks away from where I’m sitting, wasn’t just a simple silversmith or messenger. He was a complete badass! More importantly, the events leading up to the shots fired at Lexington and Concord were much more complex than they appear in most standard history textbooks. Fischer’s research and style gives both Revere’s midnight ride and the revolutionary movement relevancy at a time when the United States is struggling to adhere to its core democratic values in the face of domestic and international extremism. It should be required reading for members of Congress and every news commentator so that the next time they invoke the words “patriotism” and “forefathers” they know what the fuck they’re talking about.
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
Last month, I read the Hemingway Library Edition of Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises and loved everything about the volume. I received A Farewell to Arms, which the Hemingway Library released last year, as a birthday gift and hung my head after reading Hemingway wrote this when he was 30 years old (Seriously, dude, you’re killing the rest of us). After crying into my bourbon, I discovered I may enjoy this edition even more than The Sun Also Rises. From the gorgeous blue cover to the appendices that include a plethora of alternate endings (again, man, putting us simple writers to shame), this tome proves beyond a reasonable doubt that it deserves a prominent spot in every Hemingway fan’s bookshelf. Note of caution: When you re-read the story, keep in mind you’re reading a superior edition that doesn’t deserve a fate like that of Bradley Cooper's copy in “Silver Linings Playbook.”
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5 Books That Should Be On Your Radar: December 2014
By Daniel Ford
Every month, the Writer’s Bone crew reviews or previews books we've read or want to read. This series may or may not also serve as a confessional for guilty pleasures and hipster novels only the brave would attempt. Feel free to share your own suggestions in the comments section or tweet us @WritersBone.
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
This finalist for the National Book Award is landing on just about every top 10 list for 2014 and with good reason. All the Light We Cannot See, which tells the tale of a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France during World War II, contains so many perfect sentences that I constantly question how a lowly human could have produced it. Here are two of my favorites:
Marie-Laurie can hear a can opening, juice slopping into a bowl. Seconds later, she’s eating wedges of sunlight.
As if, at every meal, the cadets fill their tin cups not with the cold mineralized water of Schulpforta but with a spirit that leaves them glazed and dazzled, as if they ward off a vast and inevitable tidal wave of anguish only by staying forever drunk on rigor exercise and gleaming boot leather.
Every chapter is a lyrical surprise that raises your spirit right before it breaks your heart. I have less than 150 pages to read and I don’t want it to end.
A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
Only my older brother can make fun of me for reading Thirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp David one moment and then recommend this history book the next.
Here’s the overview from Barnes & Noble:
Drawing on the diaries of a midwife and healer in eighteenth-century Maine, this intimate history illuminates the medical practices, household economies, religious rivalries, and sexual mores of the New England frontier.
Yup, that’ll get the history nerd juices flowing.
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
After lusting after this Hemingway Library Edition for months, I now hold it in my hands at this very moment. I must confess I have never read Hemingway’s first novel, but that didn’t stop me from drooling over a $85,000 copy at the 2014 Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair.
This copy features early drafts, deleted passages, and other titles Hemingway drew up before setting on The Sun Also Rises. I haven’t been this excited about an extended edition since Peter Jackson’s "Return of the King," which featured the mouth of Sauron.
Pronto by Elmore Leonard
Simply because it has been far too long since we last included Leonard on a list and for the fact it’s my favorite novel featuring Raylan Givens. This needs to be a film (preferably not one based on the 1997 television movie) ASAP.
Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon
This novel might be incredibly hard to read, but it could be worth it. Writer’s Bone essayist Dave Pezza recommended it to me, and I’m intrigued by the premise. Pynchon tells the story of British surveyors Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon as they cause a ruckus on both sides of the line that bears their name. What makes the book a challenge is that Pynchon writes as if he’s living in the 18th century. Fuck me; writing this must have sucked. My hope is that Pychon stayed in character and lived, spoke, and drank like a man from the 1700s.
Bonus: The Best Book I Read in 2014
The more I wrestled with this decision, the clearer my answer became. I loved Matthew Thomas’ We Are Not Ourselves, Scott Cheshire’s High as the Horses’ Bridle, Charles M. Blow’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones, Steph Post’s A Tree Born Crooked, John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces, Joshua Ferris’ The Unnamed, Peter Sherwood’s The Murdery Delicious Hamwich Gumm Mystery: A Comedy of Terrors, Stephen King’s The Shining, and Jeff Shaara’s Gods and Generals, however, one book floored me more than all the others. And that novel is…
2 A.M. at the Cat’s Pajama’s by Marie-Helene Bertino! If you haven’t read it yet, make it part of your New Year’s resolution!
6 Literary Recommendations Destined to Become Your Nightstand’s Best Friends
Need something to read while you’re bundled under the covers and trying to forget about the snowplow rumbling futilely down your street? Or are you lucky enough to need a poolside companion while you brown your skin and sip drinks more colorful than Elton John’s wardrobe?
Either way, Daniel and Sean have you covered. They each recommended a short story, comic book, and novel that should become your nightstand’s best friend sooner rather than later.
Have a few things you’d like to add to list? Great! Let us know in the comments section or tweet us @WritersBone.
Short Stories
Sean: “A Matter of Principal” by Max Allan Collins.
This a short story for lovers of tough guy, anti-hero storylines. This was my first meeting with Collins' now famous hit man named Qurrey.
The story starts simple enough, a retired hit man talks about his issues with sleeping. He can't sleep because, well, he's bored as a retiree. While on a late night junk food run he stumbles in to a kidnapping. From this point on, Collins does an incredible job of making you feel as excited as Qurrey as he blows dust off his gun and goes to work.
Collins is like me because he grew up a huge fan of Mickey Spillane and it shows in his work. The story is bare bones and it keeps you rooting for the bad guy.
Daniel: “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway.
As much as I love “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and “A Farewell to Arms,” I think my favorite words by Ernest Hemingway come from his 1927 collection of short stories titled “Men Without Women.” The short story “Hills Like White Elephants” is classic Hemingway; straight forward dialogue that speaks volumes about the characters uttering it. Two lovers talking to each other while waiting for a train, but neither one actually listens or understands anything the other person is saying. Their conversation centers on whether the woman should have an abortion or not, but really, it’s about the death of their relationship. You feel every ounce of that death with the woman’s last line, “I feel fine. There’s nothing wrong with me. I feel fine.” That’s damn good writing by one of the best.
Comic Books
Sean: Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters by Mike Grell.
Like most everyone else, I am huge Batman fan, but I hold a special place for Oliver Queen, aka The Green Arrow, in my heart. He's a lot like Batman, but with less brooding and more of an attitude. The mini-series Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters is a stand out in the DC world. Besides the jaw-dropping artwork, the story puts you on the edge of your seat. It pushes the Green Arrow to the breaking point by attacking his personal life and his career as a crime fighter. The story holds up despite being published in the late 1980s.
Daniel: Superman for All Seasons by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale.
I wanted to go against the grain and pick something other than a Superman comic, but, alas, I could not. This Superman comic book is just too good. The artwork is a perfect modern take on old comic book styling and blends perfectly with the stories being told.
It makes Superman relatable without having to rely on the copious amounts of bearded brooding featured in “Man of Steel.” There’s something fundamentally optimistic about Superman that I think this comic captures beautifully. The recent film versions of Superman are much more cynical, which I guess reflects the times we live in. Loeb and Sale accomplish so much more by showcasing the world through Superman’s adolescent eyes rather than through a pessimistic adult’s.
Novels
Sean: Tie. The Shining and Cell by Stephen King.
I love Stephen King. When someone asks me to narrow something down that involves the New England-based writer, I can't do it. So for this, I managed to narrow it down to my two favorite Stephan King stories to read while trapped inside.
A lot of readers and movie lovers are about to be very angry with me. I am not a huge fan of the movie “The Shining.” Okay folks, put the pitchforks down and listen to me. The movie looks great and it's scary. But after reading the book, one can see that movie has no story, it's very empty. The movie is just about an already crazy man going more batshit crazy and attacking his family. In the book, King tells a tale of a family man who struggles with demons fueled by booze and rage and tries his best to be a good father and husband. Add in the fact that you are seeing the horrors through the eyes of a little boy with a power he doesn't fully understand and you are in for one hell of a ride.
Cell was King's homage to George Romeo's “Night of the Living Dead” series and it's fantastic fun. The book starts with a bang and then just keeps going. It's filled with over the top violence that makes you go "eww” in a good way. This book is also chock-full of King’s signature meaty, well-rounded characters. Unlike some of his other work that tends to be long and drawn out, this tale is short and sweet. The best part of this book is you can tell how much fun King had writing it; the joy and fun flies off the page to hit you in the face. Strap in for the ride and dive in to Cell.
Daniel: Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
I already recommended this on my personal blog “Hardball Heart,” but I just can’t help doing it again. This book is just so beautiful not to be enjoyed with a glass of red wine and a lover cuddled up next to you. Every line drips with love, passion, and romance, and you’ll never be able to forget the heartbreak and fiery exuberance of the novel’s final lines. If you don’t fall for all of the characters in this novel, well, then you have no idea what love is. This should be required reading in order to be a human being. In fact, people should have to read this book every year to make sure they remember what love should feel like.