Lucky 7 (and more) - April/May 2008
Favorite books submitted by Armchair Interviews’ reviewers
Okay, so we have more than 7 “favorites” because we haven’t done this for a while, so enjoy learning about some books our reviewers list as “the best of the last year of reading.” Some of these have been reviewed on our site, and that will be noted. Others are the reviewers’ personal books. All are available. Andrea and Connie each added two of their favorites. This list shows what a unique and diverse range of interests we all have.
Submitted by Barbara L. Fielder (reviewed)
Getting from College to Career: 90 Things To Do Before You Join The Real World
Harper Collins Publishers
Lindsey Pollak
This is one of the best investments you’ll ever make in preparing for your job search and landing your first job in the “Real World.” You will discover why and how to apply some, if not all, of the 90 worthwhile and doable things the author recommends in this well- written, practical and witty book for recent grads, those returning to the workforce or making a mid-life career change. Also a great gift for graduates and their future.
Submitted by Beth Cummings (Reviewed on our site)
Tallgrass
Sandra Dallas
St. Martin’s Press – Griffin Edition
In this novel, Sandra Dallas explores the effect of a Japanese internment camp on a small, southeastern Colorado town during World War II. The story is told from the viewpoint of a 13-year-old girl, Rennie, whose family grows sugar beets not far from the Tallgrass Camp. Dallas’s characters come alive – some with unerring kindness and some purely evil intent. Rennie’s father hires Japanese worker from the camp to work on his sugar beet farm. Rennie’s soldier brother is captured by the Germans. Her only sister has left home and moved to Denver, leaving Rennie to cope with growing up lonely. Finally, a neighbor girl is murdered and the town wants to blame the Japanese-Americans interred at Tallgrass. I enjoyed this book so much that I wanted to keep on reading even after it ended.
Submitted by Michelle Kerns
A Good and Happy Child
Justin Evans
Three Rivers Press
George Davies, has a problem—he cannot bring himself to touch or interact with his newborn son. To salvage his relationship with his puzzled and frightened wife, Davies goes to therapy. The memories that surface from his childhood are a maelstrom of terror that threaten to pull Davies back into his nightmarish past. This is a highly sophisticated thriller–a unique book that does not rely on the gratuitous violence inherent in many thrillers. The story crescendos to a gripping conclusion that will leave you sleeping with the lights on.
Submitted by Debra Kiefat
The Glass Castle
Jannette Walls
Scribner
A remarkable memoir of four children whose parents choose to be homeless while they learn to take of themselves and look out for one another. Eventually as each child graduates from high school and moves to New York City, their parents make the decision to follow them, still living on the street. This story is heartbreaking and rich with black humor. This is definitely a must read. Go to http://www.gothamist.com and read the interview with Ms. Walls by Rachel Kramer Bussell, located in the Arts & Events link. She answers many questions readers have once they have completed this astonishing story.
Submitted by Maria Elmvang
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Stieg Larsson
Quercus
When ex-reporter Mikael gets a job (while he is waiting to appear in court on a non-violent crime) to write the biography of an old businessman, he sees it as the chance of a lifetime. Not only will he get away from all the attention of his home town, he’ll be richly paid for doing what he loves: researching and writing. What he didn’t expect was that the biography would lead him to be involved with one of the weirdest murder/kidnapping crimes Sweden has ever encountered–a crime he’ll need the help of Sweden’s supreme hacker to solve. Best book I’ve read all year and absolutely impossible to put down once you start it. The characters are three-dimensional and the crime both disturbing and believable.
Submitted by Harold Walters
Book of Negroes
Lawrence Hill
Harper Collins Publishers Ltd
Best book, bar none, in the last year is by Nova Scotia author Lawrence Hill. This novel traces the history of Negroes in North America, especially how they arrived in Nova Scotia, from 1745 to 1802 or thereabouts. The actual Book of Negroes was a British military ledger allowing 3000 Black Loyalists passage on ship sailing from Manhattan to Nova Scotia. Very strong female main character: Aminita Diallo
Submitted by Claire Freelance
Trail of Crumbs: Hunger, Love and the Search for home
Kim Sunee
Grand Central Publishing
A beautiful memoir takes us through Sunee’s life—when she was abandoned in a Korean marketplace at age 3–to magnificent, mystical New Orleans and on to Provence. All the while, Sunee’s lyrical prose is as delicious as the recipes she offers throughout the book that leaves you hungry for more.
Submitted by Knevits Stephens
Beautiful Lies
Lisa Unger
Three Rivers Press
Ridley Jones receives a picture of a woman with a little girl along with a note. The little girl looks just like Ridley and the note asks, “Are you my daughter?” Ridley asks her parents if she is theirs and they tell her she is their birth daughter. Ridley hooks up with Jake and the two of them try to get to the bottom of things. Ridley has a bunch of obstacles in her way as her parents get edgy, the uncle she thought she knew, she didn’t, and her brother is a drug addict. The search for the truth is on
Submitted by Cerri Ellis
Career Diary of a Caterer
Jennifer Heigl
Garth Gardner Company
This book is a 30-day-in-the-life conversational look at running a catering business, including the ups and downs of daily activities, staff members, vendors, and catering events. Author Jennifer Heigl presents a look at the ins-and-outs of running a catering business with her spouse, chef Jeffrey Heigl.
Submitted by Julie Failla Earhart (Reviewed on our site)
Luck Be A Lady, Don’t Die
Robert J. Randisi
St. Martin’s Minoutar
Mystery
The Rat Pack takes Vegas by storm as they prepare for the premier of the original Ocean’s 11. Some dame has stood up Frankie and Frankie ain’t happy. Pit boss Eddie G. starts to nose around and the bodies start piling up.
Submitted by Jamie Driggers
Do Hard Things
Alex & Brett Harris
Multnomah
This book encourages teens to rebel against the low expectations plaguing their generation, but it isn’t just for teens. It can be a life-changing book for anyone in any generation if they will listen to what the Harris brothers say and implement the philosophy “Do Hard Things” into their lives.
Submitted by Mayra Calvani
The Darkest Evening of the Year
Dean Koontz
Bantam
Horror
Who would come up with the idea of writing a horror novel with a sweet golden retriever as one of its main protagonists? Dean Koontz does it, and marvelously well, too.
Submitted by Pat Reid
The Law of Second Chances
James Sheehan
St. Martin’s Press
Legal Thriller
Jack Tobin is a retired attorney who now spends some time working with prisoners that have been sentenced to death or life in prison. Jack only takes on cases of people that he truly believes are innocent. Includes flash backs to Jack’s life growing up in New York City.
Submitted by Kim Bagato
The Shack
William P. Young
Windblown Media
Fiction
A fictional account of a grieving father who revisits the one place he doesn’t want to go, The Shack. He is surprised to find hope and healing where death and despair reside. This is a page-turner that takes you on an unexpected journey to places of honest reflection. Challenging views of God and how we relate to him/her and with others causes introspection. An engaging, touching, and thought-provoking read!
Submitted by Laura Hilton
Oceans Apart
Karen Kingsbury
Avon
Inspirational/women’s fiction
Airline Captain Conner Evans marriage has survived some rough spots, but now, he and Michele are more in love than ever. When a phone call comes from an attorney in Hawaii, Conner thinks that maybe he needs to go to Hawaii to testify in a case. For flight attendant Kiahna Siefert, one night her dreams–and son Max is born. When she dies in a plane crash, her Will states that before Max can be turned over to the state, his father must be contacted. That call rocks the Evans couple–and his decisions about his this being his child could destroy Conner’s marriage.
Submitted by Andrea Sisco
Song Yet Sung
James McBride
Riverhead books
In the tense days before the Civil War, a slave breakout in the swamps of Maryland’s eastern shore sets loose a riveting drama of violence, hope and redemption among slave catchers, plantation owners, watermen, runaway slaves, and free blacks. Liz Spocott, a runaway slave is shot and is near death. She’s wracked by visions of the future as she lies shackled to an old woman in the prison attic of the notorious female slave-trader, Patty Cannon and her gang. It’s a stunning book that will leave you thinking about the story long after you close the book. It is a winner, and I suspect will be my favorite book of 2008.
World Made by Hand
James Howard Kunstler
Atlantic Monthly Press
This speculative fiction novel looks at a future in the United States in the aftermath of world change. There’s no government, except for a possible President. Travel beyond your community could result in death–or death could meet you in your community. Life is more than difficult with no planes, trains, automobiles (no more oil), internet, telephone or television. Epidemics are wiping out population centers. It’s a scintillating tale of love, loss, violence, and desperation and could well be in my top five fiction choices for 2008.
Submitted by Connie (both reviewed on our site)
Sit, Ubu, Sit
Gary David Goldberg
Harmony Books
Memoir
Does the name Michael Keaton or Family Ties mean anything to you? UBU, Gary Goldberg’s production company (named after his black lab), produced Family Ties, Brooklyn Bridge and Spin City–and Gary was the head writer on two of them. This is a Hollywood guy-nice-guy-makes-good memoir of Gary’s life—about his writing and production. It is also a love letter to his wife and children, and to the actors and writers in the industry he feels privileged to work in. (Listen to our interview with Gary)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (book2) and Diary of a Wimpy Kid (book 1)
Jeff Kinney
Amulet Press
Humor
Kinney has put his cartoonist talent to work in a unique book that became a New York Times Bestseller. The Gregg, the wimpy kid, is in middle school and does the typical kid, especially boy things–and we learn about it as Kinney presents Gregg’s life hand printed on wide-lined paper. The cartoons throughout the story are of the people in Greg’s life—and the more he doesn’t like them, the uglier they are drawn. This is not really designed for boys that age, but boys who are ageless and mothers who raised those boys. I enjoyed both immensely as a nice diversion from real life (and because my boy is finally a grown-up).