Staff Recommendations, Week of November 9, 2021

 

A few recommendations coming your way from the Boswellians this week!

First up it's Tim McCarthy for The Sentence, the new novel by Louise Erdrich. Tim's rec: "The Sentence is both hilarious and deadly serious, sly and sincere. It's hard-edged and beautifully tender, with biting humor as a balm for life’s wounds. Erdrich is a national treasure, but you probably knew that. What I knew of her was limited to her Birchbark House children's writing. I also knew that her flowing autograph is a signed book nerd’s dream, and her beautiful jacket photos take my breath away. I'm a shameful book collector who’s picky about his crushes. Oh yes, the story. If I tell you very much, I’ll ruin good surprises. So, I’ll just say it’s a ghost story, an exploration of the spirit world inside our own. It happens in Erdrich’s very own book store, Birchbark Books, with Louise as a subtle character. And the ghost is an annoying, complex, recently dead regular customer. Above all, we get to see into the heart of a Minneapolis bookstore during the pandemic and the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder. This book is priceless American truth! And it's about people who love books."

Kay Wosewick recommends The Singing Forest, the latest novel by Canadian author Judith McCormack. Kay's rec: "A brutalized boy from a dirt-poor family escapes to Minsk, Belarus in the 1930s, which is filled with Stalin’s watchdogs. Eventually, the boy gains low-level employment with them. Decades later, he is linked to mass graves that have just been uncovered outside Minsk. Lawyers build a case to end his comfortable life in Canada and send the now very old man back to Belarus. McCormack skillfully presents the story in grey moral tones that resist easy answers."

Daniel Goldin has a recommendation - the book came out last week, but the rec just came in today! So I'm sharing it with you now: You Can’t Be Serious, by Kal Penn. Daniel's rec: "I have always been intrigued by Kal Penn, not just for his acting, but for his detour into civil service, which unlike other celebrities, did not involve running for office. While You Can’t Be Serious doesn’t have a coming out chapter, its revelation that Penn is engaged to a Nascar-loving Missisippian named Josh earned headlines upon the book’s publication. I was also very interested in reading about Penn’s struggles finding good roles as a South Asian and why Harold and Kumar go to White Castle was so groundbreaking. For every celebrity memoir I read, there are five others I put down within 25 pages. I need to like the voice, I want some interesting stories, the author must have something of substance to say, and if I’m promised humor, I better be laughing out loud. You Can’t Be Serious has all of that!"

That's it! We'll have more recommendations next week, and until then, happy reading from all the Boswellians.