Back, Back in Time We Go

Here is part two of the favorite books of the year by the Boswellians; the topic this week is: Back, back in Time We Go. No, it is not a time travel post, but it is about  books that look back at different  historical periods, be it in novel form or other. Without further ado, here is the first listing brought to you by Boswellian, Sharon.  She was excited about the Sue Monk Kidd novel, The Inventtion of Wings that came out much earlier in the year(we had a great author event with Sue!). It has captured many reader’s imaginations and it will continue to capture more:  

"This is the story of Sarah Grimke, a child of privilege born into a slave owning Charleston family. On her 11tth birthday, her parents give her a handmaid, a slave of her own, 10 year old Hetty. Horrified, Sarah tries to free her that very night. Her parents let her know that this is not an option. Sarah Grimke was an actual person who became a well-known abolitionist and suffragette. Sue Monk Kidd has woven a fictional story around the facts of Sarah’s life, casting light on a fascinating woman that I had never read about. The story moves back and forth, with events being described from Sarah’s and then Hetty’s point of view. These two girls essentially grew up together, although they were separated by the wide gulf of race, privilege, and opportunity. A masterful story, told in the vein of one of my favorite authors, Geraldine Brooks. If you haven’t checked in with Sue Monk Kidd since The Secret Life of Bees, it’s time to change that." --Sharon Nagel

The next book, The Paying Guest by Sarah Waters, was a huge staff favorite, as I had three fantastic reviews to choose from.  Sharon, Carly, and Jen were able to conduct an interview with Sarah about her new book. You can access that here. The novel starts off in 1922, it is post-war and work is scarce for all the returning servicemen. One family in South London has lodgers come to stay with them. Here is Jen’s review of the Paying Guest: 

"In the aftermath of World War I, Frances Wray and her mother must rent out rooms in their house, due to their accumulated losses and mounting debts. Newlyweds Leonard & Lillian Barber are the Wray’s first tenants in their home up on Champion Hill. It's a big adjustment for the Wrays, who come to terms with having "paying guests." Along the way, Frances & Lillian get to know each other, and what begins as a friendship blossoms into something more. Then one day a catastrophe strikes that upends their existence and that of everyone they know. Sexy, gripping, and suspenseful, Sarah Waters is in top form." --Jen Steele

One of Josh’s favorite books of the year was Mad as Hell by Dave Itzkoff. Without an actual review to reference, I think I can gleam why Josh picked this behind-the-scenes look at the movie Network. First off, Josh loves popular culture, especially if it is in movie or music format. Mad as Hell tells the story of how an improbable movie was able to make it to the screen in the first place. Starting with the story of the screenwriter, who would not change his vision and was able to change the way people would forever look at the news and television. Dave Itzkoff interviewed current broadcasters to see what influence the 1976 movie Network had them, and you will be amazed to see the line-up of broadcasters he was able to get, some of the greats that everybody knows today.  The next reason that Josh probably loved this book is for one of the greatest movie lines uttered by the character Howard Beale: "I'm Mad as Hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!" And, if neither of those are the reason Josh Davis loved this book, I’m sure his opinion on it can be learned on any given Wednesday.  
 

Keeping with true stuff, well mostly, is the historical biography of Stonewall Jackson. Rebel Yell by S.C. Gwynne was tremendous. I have read a lot of history in my day, I have a degree in it that I use quite often (insert nervous laugh), but I have never been one to read about the Civil War. Not sure why, it has never interested me highly. That is until now. S.C. Gwynne writing is welcoming like a stream that quickly becomes a raging river, and I was sucked into it all the way up to my neck. It was amazing to think that Stonewall Jackson needed the Civil War. He was doomed to just be another teacher in a military academy without the it. He had an uncanny ability to see to the heart of situations, he understood that the war was going to have to bloody and merciless years before any other general came to that conclusion. He thought that the Confedrates should have an all-out march on Washington and leave no prisoner behind. In his thinking, this would actually save lives in the long run. This was a one-of-kind historical biography, and my favorite book I have read all year!—Jason Kennedy

The Novel by Michael Schmidt, is an exhausted look at the English novel. It covers large areas, geographically and culturally. The book clocks in over 1100 pages, though Jane tells me that you can dip into the book and read a bit from time to time.  She is very enthusiastic about this book, and here is her blurb:  

“Insightful journey through 700 years of literature’s most celebrated writing accomplished, in partnership with authors commenting on authors and authors reaching out to readers! Engaging! Enlightening! Enjoyable!”—Jane Glaser

 

Carly Lenz loved One Summer by Bill Bryson that came out late last year, but she is a new Boswellian and was taken by this tale and the hordes of readers who read the book.  It is the story of the summer of 1927 and all the amazing accomplishments that happened to America during that time. From Charles Lindbergh crossing the Atlantic and Babe Ruth setting the home run record to talking pictures, jazz and gangsters, Bill Bryson weaves a tableau of American fabric into a spellbinding tale of our past.

Back for one more title? Good, this one has been a huge success for us and for many other booksellers this year, from loving the book to selling the book we love. This book popped up on three different booksellers top 5 books of the year, namely Conrad, Sharon, and Todd's lists. It is Anthony Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See. It could very easily be our best selling #1 hardcover fiction title published in 2014 that does not include having an event with the author, which could be different next year when the paperback will be released (stay tuned to our monthly newsletters and e-mail newsletters for more possible information).  It is the tale of two people, from different parts of life, attempting to survive the hand they have been dealt in the midst of a world war.  Here are two blurbs for the book: 

 

"Anthony Doerr crafts hundreds of trim scenes of 1) a french girl who is blind fleeing World War II and 2) a boy with technical prowess becoming a nazi. What is the light neither sees?"--Todd Wellman

 

"Doerr spent almost a decade writing this beautiful novel, and it shows! In the hands of a lesser writer, this could easily have devolved into mawkish tripe."--Conrad Silverberg 

OTHER WORLDS RATHER THAN OUR OWN

Heading into the end of 2014, all of the Bookswellians have been compiling a list of their favorite books of the year. It's one of the easiest ways for me to find out what to really highlight in our Holiday Newsletter, which you should see coming around the beginning of December. So, I figured I would give everybody snippets of what they will see featured at Boswell this season. It is a rather large list, so I have attempted to break it up into subtopics--this week's subtopic, Other Worlds Rather Than Our Own. I am a little loosey-goosey with the strict definitions, but this should be fun, so here we go:

First up, brought to you by one of our newer Boswellians, Todd, is a big pharma novel, Does Not Love by James Tadd Adcox. It takes place in a alternative version of Indianapolis:

"This novel explores how and why we name and treat conditions. When once someone was just brokenhearted, perhaps she now has relationship adverse trauma syndrome and could use a prescription to help her recover. Set in an Indianapolis similar to the Indianapolis you may know and love, the book follows Robert and Viola, husband and wife, through disappoints, diagnoses, and treatments on a polluted journey in search of the fulfillment promised by money, modern pharmaceuticals, and romance. Taunting FBI agents, underground drug safety trials, and odd ailments frequent the characters until they, at least for a moment, accept that what they have will never be what myths of marriage promise." --Todd Wellman

An author that defies being pigeon-holed in a genre, David Mitchell’s novels hold a special place in the hearts and minds of his many fans. And with this new novel, he has given everybody the threads that interconnect his entire oeuvre of novels. Here Conrad shares his love for reading The Bone Clocks:

 

 "Why do I love David Mitchell? Because he teaches me words like "insufflation" (think cocaine). Because he fearlessly uses compound contractions like "I'd've" or "can't've". Because he opens with: "Welsh rain gods piss onto the roofs, festival tents and umbrellas of Hay-on-Wye and also on Crispin Hershey, as he strides along a gutter-noisy lane, into the Old Cinema Bookshop and makes his way down to its deepest bowel where he rips this week’s Piccadilly Review into confetti." (And that's his opening for the fourth section! A little ditty most authors would kill for as an opening sentence for their entire book.) Because Mitchell can capture the self-absorbed, tatty slang of a British teenager yearning to break free from parental constraints and dash heedlessly into the world; the alcohol fueled banter of fourth year Cambridge students one-upping each other's studied insults with their buddies in a cozy bar in the dead of night; the world weary self-deprecating musings of a washed up novelist who has failed to live up to the promise of his first book. In short, Mitchell is one of the finest English novelists at work today and is to be greedily anticipated. This delivers the goods." --Conrad Silverberg

This world is hidden behind doors, and in cold places. Places we do not normally want to know about, but Caitlin Doughty brings us into her world brilliantly. Here is Mel’s review:

"Thanks to Caitlin Doughty’s well-written debut, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematory, death is the new sex! Similar to the arguments of sex and body positivists in the past, Doughty calls for a revolution in our death-denying, consumption-obsessed country, demanding honesty from medical and death industry professionals while detailing the boons of having the spaces and conversations that would allow people in the US to embrace the "good death" by taking back their power during death rituals and practices. Her personal experiences in the death industry are interspersed with historical and cultural anecdotes both educational and entertaining. This is one of the most important books I've read this year--I hope it helps incite the revolution in the death industry that Doughty feels is warranted and long overdue in this country." --Mel Morrow

Here the author, Amanda Petrusich, reports on a world that she gets sucked into and away from ours. Josh would love to go there:

"DoNot Sell at Any Price is a great look into the world of the most collectible records on Earth (pre-war 78s of country blues artists like Charley Patton and Robert Johnson) as well as record collecting overall. Petrusich clearly illustrates the effect of the collecting bug by catching it herself, and her quest leads her from North Carolina flea markets to the bottom of the Milwaukee River. She even delves into such unexpected issues as gender and psychology with ease. It’s a slim volume that won’t trouble you, but if you match it with the list of suggested listening in the back pages, you may find yourself lusting after some very expensive records!" --Josh Davis

Back to fictional worlds, and none-to-soon, as Emily St. John Mandel’s world is a post-apocalyptic version of our own. We have many fans on staff of this gorgeous novel, but I am going to provide you with Daniel’s review:

"In this powerful new novel, the end of civilization might not come via nuclear war or environmental catastrophe, but by a flu virus so lethal that there is simply nobody around to keep civilization going. By the time we’re in shape to recover, it’s too late to stop out-of-control fires, or contain lawlessness, let alone turn back on electricity, the internet, or gas pumps. In this post-apocalyptic world, small outposts remain, congregated around abandoned fast food restaurants and airplane terminals with little to bring joy and beauty to their lives aside from a periodic visit from the Traveling Symphony, a group of Shakespeare-performing classical musicians. One day, the Symphony comes to St. Deborah by the Water, only to find that the village has been taken over by a cult, and things turn particularly dangerous when one of the villagers becomes a stowaway. And then one of the performers, Kirsten, slowly learns that she and the ruthless cult leader might have more in common than she imagined. And in fact almost all the characters in this story are connected by an unlikely source—an actor named Arthur Leander, whose on-stage death opened the story. Station Eleven is an entrancing thriller/fantasy epic/comic satire/domestic drama, and while the setup might have reminded you of The Hunger Games, the result is more A Visit from the Goon Squad." --Daniel Goldin

A long continuing story about a woman who ends up being cast back in time and the people she meets. Written in My Own Heart’s Blood by Diana Gabaldon takes readers to a world, where they can’t possible go; unless you invent the time machine next week:

"This is the 8th book in the Outlander series, the epic love story between Claire, a 20th century nurse, and Jamie, a Scottish laird from the 1700's. Claire is known as an outlander, one who travels outside of her own time. She passed through Druid stones, and ended up 200 years before her own time. This book takes place during the American Revolution, and Claire is in a unique position, as she knows how things will turn out. I have been a fan of this series since the mid-1990's, and I would recommend that you start with the first book. There is way too much going on to start in the middle."--Sharon Nagel

One of the most unique and favorite books that I have read this year would have to be Area X: The Southern Reach Trilogy. Jeff VanderMeer has written a maddening masterpiece of a creepy part of the world cut off from humanity. The three parts that make up Area X were published in quick succession of each other, and now, capitalizing on the success of the series, FSG has published them all in one volume. The first two books introduce the weirdness that surrounds the event that cut separates them from a large piece of land that is now more other world. They send in expeditions to see how the environment has changed. Some of those expeditions never come back, some of them come back, only mad or not as themselves at all. Like peeling an onion, Jeff VanderMeer slowly reveals the strangeness, wonder and deadliness of this new world. Without writing any spoilers, I will stop here and say this is one book not to miss.--Jason Kennedy

 

How do you make it when you are shut off from the only world you have ever known? What do you reach for, if not Shakespeare Saved My Life by Laura Bates, to discover how one woman used the great bard to reach inmates in prison. Here Anne reviews one of her favorite, if not her absolute favorite book of the last couple of years:

 

"If anyone needs proof that literature can change lives, here it is. This is an amazing story, beautifully told, of the impact Shakespeare's work had on one remarkable man, imprisoned for life, and his teacher. This must read is one of the most important books I have read in a long time; I'm still reeling from the power of the ending." --Anne McMahon

 

 

The New Novel from Sarah Waters, "The Paying Guests," is out on Tuesday, September 16--Read Our Exclusive Interview.

Next week the new novel from Sarah Waters comes out. This is her sixth novel, following Tipping the Velvet, Affinity, Fingersmith, The Night Watch, and The Little Stranger. Waters was one of the Best Young British Novelists for Granta, and all her books have received strong review attention; three of her novels have been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.

The Paying Guests has been hotly anticipated by Boswellians. Here's a recommendation from Jen Steele: "In the aftermath of World War I, Frances Wray and her mother must rent out rooms in their house, due to their accumulated losses and mounting debts. Newlyweds Leonard and Lillian Barber are the Wray’s first tenants in their home up on Champion Hill. It's a big adjustment for the Wrays, who come to terms with having "paying guests". Along the way, Frances & Lillian get to know each other, and what begins as a friendship blossoms into something more. Then one day a catastrophe strikes that upends their existence and that of everyone they know. Sexy, gripping, and suspenseful, Sarah Waters is in top form."

Boswellian Carly Lenz called The Paying Guests "A meticulously and beautifully constructed novel full of plot twists, character depth, and striking language." And Sharon Nagel praised the "supenseful and unpredictable story." With such enthusiasm, the three of them got together and asked me* to help facilitate an interview with the author. So we worked with our friends at Riverhead and to our delight, Ms. Waters (photo credit Charlie Hopkinson) was happy to ponder Sharon, Carly, and Jen's questions.

The Boswellians: Can you tell us something about The Paying Guests that's not in the book description?

Waters: It was a tough book to write! - both technically and emotionally. I took a lot of wrong turnings, and did tons of rewriting: I have a pile of discarded drafts that is literally three feet high. But once I'd found the tone I was looking for, it was a very rewarding writing experience, and I've ended up feeling fonder of this book than of any of my others.

Boswellians: What gets you in the mood when your writing books set in another time? Do you listen to any music from the topical time period/era while writing?

Waters: I can't listen to music when I write: I have to have boring peace and quiet. But I did watch lots of '20s films when I was writing The Paying Guests, and I looked at as many images as I could - of street scenes, say, and fashions, food, domestic artefacts. The internet is a wonderful thing for a historical novelist - though it can also be a huge distraction...

Boswellians: Your novels have a certain sexiness to them and your latest novel, The Paying Guests is being considered your steamiest novel yet. Was this something you wanted to explore in-depth? Is it awkward or fun to write love scenes?

Waters: It's fun, but a challenge, because sex is so complex: it isn't just the body that's involved, but the head, the heart, the emotions, and a good sex scene should do justice to all that. Sometimes, too, sex doesn't quite work, or fails completely - and again, an honest depiction should capture that untidiness. But one of the toughest things about writing lesbian sex scenes is that it's all 'she' and 'her': 'She put her head between her legs while she twirled her fingers in her hair', etc. Your characters can end up sounding as though their arms are ten feet long.

Boswellians: In the world of lesbian fiction, your writing of lesbian relationships has a rare, more literary feel than the average lesbian pulp, do you feel that portraying lesbian relationships as similar to straight ones makes that divorce from lesbian pulp easier? Also, The Paying Guests has a Patricia Highsmith feel. If you were writing The Paying Guests in the 1950s, do you think you'd have felt more pressure to conform to "pulp" standards or do you think you would have been able to write lesbian relationships in such a literary way?

Waters: I'm not sure that I portray lesbian relationships as similar to straight ones, exactly - or perhaps you mean I treat them with the sort of respect, honesty and attention that we're more used, in books and films, to seeing devoted to heterosexual lives? Yes, that's definitely something I aim for. As for the Highsmithy feel of The Paying Guests - thank you! Patricia Highsmith is one of my favourite authors. I'd like to think that if I'd been writing in the 1950s I would have had the courage to write in an ambitious, non-pulpy way about lesbians - she did, after all, with Carol. But I know that I've only been able to write in a relaxed manner about lesbians because so many other authors did it first, before me.

Boswellians: In your books, some of your lesbian characters live openly and some are closeted to all but their closest confidantes. What we liked about Frances is that she's true to her nature. Given the conservative attitudes in postwar England, do you think any gay people were able to live openly or were they all shunned? Is it possible that Christina and Stevie were living openly? (Help us settle a bet- Sharon says no and Jen says yes)

Waters: It was a really interesting time for gay people, because attitudes were changing, and sexual knowledge was spreading. Yes, society was conservative, and fictional portrayals of lesbianism from the time (e.g. in Clemence Dane's Regiment of Women or Naomi Royde Smith's The Tortoiseshell Cat) are pretty damning. But in real life, with the right resources behind you, it was clearly relatively easy to meet and form communities, to find lovers and sympathetic friends: look at biographies of women like Katherine Mansfield, Vita Sackville West and Daphne du Maurier and her sisters and you'll see that they had lesbian relationships in very unproblematic ways. Radclyffe Hall and Una Troubridge were part of a confident lesbian network. And Sylvia Townsend Warner and her lover Valentine Ackland lived together very openly in their small Dorset community. So I think that Christina and Stevie are living pretty openly, too, but benefiting from the fact that only some observers would understand them to be lesbian, while others might consider them to be simply arty, or eccentric, or two young spinsters sharing a flat. It depends what your idea of 'openness' is... So, Sharon and Jen, I think you are both right.

Boswellians: What was your influence for The Paying Guests? Was there any particular novel or writer that directly influenced you?

Waters: There wasn't a particular writer, no. One thing that struck me about the period was what a mish-mash of voices it was. The 1940s, for example, has always seemed to me to have a very distinctive idiom; but the '20s was much more diverse. So I just read all sorts of literature from the period - novels, plays, poetry, letters, diaries; highbrow, middlebrow and potboilers - and let it all seep in.

Boswellians: If you could, which time period would you prefer to live in: Tipping the Velvet or The Paying Guests?

Waters: The Paying Guests, no contest - simply because, as an unmarried woman in the 1920s, there'd be more ways for me to live independently. I think I'd have more chance of meeting other lesbians, too. And the clothes would weigh less!

Boswellians: In reading The Paying Guests, we felt like we were sucked right into the pages and were right there next to Frances, especially with the courtroom scenes. How much research did you have to conduct regarding the British Justice System for part three?

Waters: Tons! I really had to know what I was talking about, even if I never got to use all the details. I had in fact visited the Old Bailey in the past, so that was a good starting-point. But I had to get a handle on the whole legal process, as well as police procedure and stuff like that. Newspapers were a great help, along with transcripts of celebrated trials. I did so much research into it all, in such a short space of time, that I'm sure at one point I could have done a good job of defending you in court, if I'd had to.

Boswellians: Your couples seem so different from each other but they manage to fall in love. Do you enjoy writing "opposites attract" romances? They do seem to be enjoyable to read.

Waters: Well, I think it's partly something to do with writing lesbian love stories. Just because the lovers are of the same sex, it doesn't mean that there aren't going to be other differences between them - differences, say, of class, that might have a huge impact on how they feel about themselves, their bodies, their desires, their expectations and ambitions. The Paying Guests is the first time I've portrayed an affair between a lesbian and a married woman, so that was interesting. Frances is posher than Lilian, so has that class advantage. But oddly, her background weighs on her, too, in a way that Lilian's does not; and Lilian, as a wife, has a status that Frances lacks as a spinster. I like thinking about how those sorts of dynamics play out in a relationship. They're what give a love affair texture, and bite - don't you think?

Thank you to Sarah Waters and to Jynne and Liz at Riverhead for coordinating this. The Paying Guests is on sale Tuesday, September 16, at Boswell and, to use an old-fashioned tagline, wherever fine books are sold. Why not pre-order a copy from us? And to get another take on the novel, read Michael Dirda's review in The Washington Post.

*I'm just the secretary for this post, which is why it is in The Boswellians.

Meet Your Boswellians: Jen Steele

Hi Everyone! 

We have some new faces this year and (as always) new things to say at The Boswellians Blog and around Boswell Book Company, so stay tuned. We're kicking off with a reboot of Introducing Your Boswellians introducing you to our January featured bookseller. Without further ado:  

Meet Jen Steele! 

1. What do you love about working at Boswell Book Company?
Working for Boswell is everything a former Barnes & Noble bookslave could hope for. I love the sense of community Boswell has created here. I enjoy meeting all sorts of people involved in the book world. Everyone has been so welcoming. I even got to meet Simon Winchester! WOW!

2. What’s your absolute most favorite of all the things in Boswell right now?
That Patrick Ness will be here this month!! Or do you mean something I can take home with me? Well then that would be the greeting cards! I'm always buying cards. You never know when you'll need one in a pinch.

3. What’s your absolute most favorite of all the books ever?
Shadow of the Wind and Lonesome Dove. ( Did you really think a bookseller could pick just one??)

4. What’s on your staff rec shelf?
Glad you asked! My rec shelf will be going through some changes once the books I want to add are released. In the meantime I have Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry, Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan, Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, Y the Last Man, Book One by Brian K. Vaughan, Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith, and The Idiot Girl's Action-Adventure Club by Laurie Notaro.

5. For which writer—living or dead—would you take a bullet?
A bullet? Well this is probably gonna be sappy but it would have to be my partner. She writes the best lunch notes for me! Oh and probably Neil Gaiman...if I'm wearing a bullet proof vest?

6. With which fictional character can you most relate and why?
She's not fictional, but I totally relate to Laurie Notaro in her book The Idiot Girl's Action-Adventure Club. She's clumsy and always finding herself in awkward situations just like me!

7. Someone wrote your biography – what is the title?
Jen Steele is MORE than a superhero name!


8. If you were a super hero/ine, what would be your name and what’s your power?
Red Ale Woman. Fighting Beer Barons and their bad Beer. Pissy yellow beer is thy enemy!

9. Which band or artist would you drop everything to party with?
Rolling Stones! Do they still party?...can they still party?

10. What’s your spirit animal?
Elephant.

11. Forget “you are what you eat.” We’re talking dranks—what beverage are you?
I'm probably lemonade. Don't know why, just feeling it right now.

12. Now we’re talking…dreams. What’s yours?
I want to spend two weeks hiking and photographing Milford Sound and the Fiordlands in New Zealand!

BOOM! JEN STEELE IS OUT OF HERE!

A Bookseller's Chance Encounter

An enormous Harley-Davidson rider visited the bookstore this afternoon. He looked like one of the vikings from the Capitol One Venture Card television commercials and towered over me like a grizzly bear on its hind legs.

"I'm looking for The Song of the Lark," he said, lifting his mirrored sunglasses onto his head.

I showed the hulk to the fiction section and handed him the book. I felt like I had to say, "you didn't strike me as a Willa Cather fan when you walked in."

"She's so special," he replied. He paid for the book and left. Awesome, I thought to myself. Bloody awesome.

Skip ahead a few hours. I was feeling peckish after work, so I stopped by a favorite local pizza place, Ian's, for a slice. As I exited the restaurant I heard a booming voice shout, "Hey, Boswell!" It was my au courant Harley rider friend, enjoying some pizza with his rider buddies on their bikes.

I couldn't help but notice the sidecar...

"Y'know, it's been kind of a bucket list dream of mine to ride in the sidecar of a Harley," I half-joked.

"Well, get your ass in."

So there I was, riding down North Avenue in the sidecar of a Harley-Davidson, driven by a stranger, with a box of pizza in my lap, giddy with childlike joy. Thank you Dave the Harley rider from Pittsburgh, wherever you are. Bloody awesome.

--Nick

Halley's Top Ten Books for the Year

When thinking about my imminent departure from Boswell, one of the things that made me saddest was knowing that I wouldn't have the opportunity to wax poetic on my favorite reads at the end of the year in our holiday newsletter.  Thankfully we have our blog, The Boswellians.  Here are my ten favorite books for 2013, in no particular order.  I'm sure you'll notice that all titles involve either science, history, or dogs - subjects that if you talk to me in the store you'll know I'm very fond of.


 #1. Gulp by Mary Roach
  Now I know that I claimed that I wouldn't be listing these in order, but Gulp is truly my favorite book from 2013.  The book is packed with interesting and disgusting facts and experiments around the alimentary canal, and easily tops Roach's book Bonk, a book that I was convinced would always be her best work.  Her writing remains top-notch, there are very few authors who can illicit the range of emotions that she can, I fluctuated between thrilled, awed, grossed out, and sad. This book would probably also win the "Most Times Halley Can Annoy Her Boyfriend About One Book" award, as my boyfriend and I like to sit and read together and I interrupted his reading every five minutes while reading this book to tell him something new that I learned along the way.

#2. The Drunken Botanist by Amy Stewart

I picked up a galley for this book on a whim at one of our rep nights, I thought that perhaps my boyfriend the plant nerd would get a kick out of it.  When he didn't pick it up immediately, I decided to check it out and was instantly hooked.  It became a book that I would read out loud to Andrew while he cooked, and that got him on board the Stewart train as well.  The book opened my eyes to other books by Stewart which I subsequently gobbled up.  The Drunken Botanist is a beautiful blend of botany and history, and also of some of the social and economic repercussions that are wrapped up in certain crops. Stewart was also part of one of my favorite events that Boswell held at the Great Lakes Distillery earlier in the spring.

#3. The Girls of Atomic City by Denise Kiernan
I wrote a whole blog post about this one here.  I should add that Kiernan was a great presenter and the event at Boswell was wonderful, the crowd was filled with people who had ties to Oak Ridge, TN.


 #4. The Astronaut Wives Club by Lily Koppel
I picked this book up after reading The Girls of Atomic City, knowing that I still had a historical itch to scratch.  I LOVED every single bit of this book.  I became immersed in the lives of the women standing behind the men of Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo - every reading session ended with me running to Wikipedia to learn more.  Of all of the books I've read this year, this is the one that left me saddest at the end, I wasn't ready to be done.  This lead to Netflix binges of space documentaries, the search for the perfect edition of Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff, and my boyfriend thinking I was obsessed enough with astronauts to want a big box of astronaut ice cream.

 #5. The Guns at Last Light by Rick Atkinson 
 This is another book mentioned alongside Kiernan's Girls of Atomic City in my earlier blog post.  The only thing I can add is that this book deserves a Pulitzer just as much as his first in the Liberation Trilogy, An Army at Dawn.




#6. My Dog: The Paradox by Matthew Inman (aka The Oatmeal)
First let me shamelessly flaunt my dog Poppy, the most perfect specimen of a dog on the planet:

 To know me is to know that I am obsessed with my little white dog.  When I first read the My Dog: The Paradox comic on The Oatmeal, I laughed, I cried, and I showed it to all of the dog lovers that I knew.  Inman captured all of the emotions and oddities involved with dog ownership perfectly.  When I got my hardcover copy of it I took it home and read it to Poppy.  That reading session ended in tears when I got to the part about dogs not being able to live forever, but it also made me appreciate the time that I do get to have with my sweet little P.

#7. Once Upon a Flock by Lauren Scheuer
When we were younger my best friend Jodi had chickens on her farm.  I hated them.  They ran around wherever they pleased and were stinkier than any cow I had ever met.  This did not seem like a book for me, but I was intrigued by the mixture of photography and illustration and decided to give it a try.  This was my most pleasantly surprising read of the year. I became engrossed in Scheuer's flock, caring about every single detail of the chickens' lives from their eating habits to egg laying.  I became so wrapped up in the bunch that I finished this book in a laundromat in tears after the death of one of my favorite chickens. This was a fun read that may make the reader obsessed with having a flock of their own.


#8. Maddie on Things by Theron Humphrey
When Stacie first introduced me to Maddie, I oohed and awed over how cute the adorable coonhound was.  After meeting Maddie at Boswell I was even more in love.  Humphrey's photographs are a nice blend of humor and art that showcase the different parts of the United States.

#9. The Inheritor's Powder by Sandra Hempel

Hempel brings together chemistry, crime, law, mystery, and history in this book on arsenic - a once popular method for poisoning.  I loved that Hempel was able to write on science and history while keeping a side plot on an actual case of arsenic poisoning.  This book is not out until October, but it is well worth the wait.


#10. Electrified Sheep by Alex Boese
I have not yet finished this book, but as I am over halfway through I can say with confidence that this is easily one of my favorite books for 2013. Boese writes on the stranger side of science, covering experiments that would probably be frowned upon by most of humanity.  The book is hilarious and crazy, two things that I can get behind.

Girls of Atomic City and Other World War II Reads

I won't lie; I am incredibly excited for today's event. The store has the great fortune of hosting Denise Kiernan, author of The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II at 2:00pm.  Anyone who is familiar with my reading interests will know that they lie heavily in the sciences. I can talk your ear off about bacteria, viruses, the Higgs Boson, astronomy, or medicine. What people may not realize is that I am also a huge fan of history, particularly World War II history. Maybe it's because my grandpa was a WWII vet, or maybe it's because I had incredible history teachers, or maybe it's because my parents enjoyed history; whatever the reason, I've always been hooked on learning as much as possible about WWII. Growing up, Saving Private Ryan was my favorite movie, the History Channel (which at the time was more or less the Nazi Channel) was my favorite channel, and HBO's miniseries Band of Brothers (based on the book by Stephen Ambrose) was a major event. As I grow older, I still have an immense interest in WWII, but now it’s because I've realized how the war itself has had such an impact on our lives today. Leaps in technology came forth, new world powers became defined, and new ideas of horror emerged. 

Me and my buddy Winston in Toronto

 

What I find impressive is that new material continually comes out on the matter, an event that ended 68 years ago in 1945. Over the past few years we've seen more and more books, some which are just another look at aspects already covered, and some which manage to cover topics not previously written on or covered extensively enough. Here are a few of the more recent WWII books that have come out, some which I have read and some of which I'm excited to someday read!

The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II  by Denise Kiernan

Kiernan’s book is an amazing read for not only lovers of history, but for fans of non-fiction that’s written in more of a story form. The book begins in 1943 and follows a group of women working in Oak Ridge Tennessee at Clinton Engineer Works. All that the women knew when they were recruited was that they were ‘helping their country win the war.’ They had no idea where they were when they arrived, and they had no idea that their work was ultimately part of the Manhattan Project. This is so far one of my favorite books of the year. It’s been receiving comparisons to Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which I think is a fair comparison thanks to Kiernan and Skloot’s abilities to make history interesting to non-nerdy folks.

The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945 by Rick Atkinson

I have only just started this book, but the the finale of Atkinson’s “Liberation Trilogy” is a triumphant ending to an excellent series that followed the Allies during WWII. The first two books, An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943 and The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 opened my eyes up to new intricacies of the war that I didn’t even know existed. The Guns at Last Light starts off quickly and exciting with the days leading up to the Normandy invasion, and is a timely read with the 69^th anniversary of D-Day being just two days ago. This is an excellent read for fans of history and I think an ace in the hole for a Father’s Day present.

Saving Italy: The Race to Rescue a Nation’s Treasures from the Nazis by Robert M. EdselI have yet to read Saving Italy, but I am a huge fan of Edsel’s 2009 book The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History. The Monuments Men followed an Allied group responsible for the protection of art in Europe from the Nazis, and is going to be made into a movie featuring the likes of Daniel Craig and George Clooney. Edsel’s follow-up, Saving Italy, again revolves around art and culture protection, but this time in just Italy specifically.

In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin by Erik Larson

Fans of the store’s blog will be sure to recognize Larson’s WWII title, as it was a frequent best-seller in both hardcover and paperback. This is a great pick again for those who loved more story-driven history and for anyone who loved Larson’s The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America.

The Second World War by Antony BeevorI have yet to read this, but I have been incredibly impressed with Beevor’s older works on WWII, covering such topics as the D-Day invasion, the fall of Berlin, and the battles at Stalingrad. This is a compact book that covers all aspects of the war from its beginning to V-J Day.

Here are some other great WWII picks that came out within the past two years:

• Double Cross: The True Story of D-Day Spies by Ben Macintyre and Agent Garbo: The Brilliant, Eccentric Secret Agent Who Tricked Hitler and Saved D-Day by Stephan TaltyThese are two great books for fans of real life espionage.

• Citizens of London: The Americans Who Stood With Britain in Its Darkest, Finest Hour by Lynne Olson and 1940: FDR, Willkie, Lindbergh, Hitler – The Election Amid the Storm by Susan DunnThese two are for those interested in the time before the United States entered the war.
• The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965 by William Manchester
•  Six Months in 1945: FDR, Stalin, Churchill, and Truman- From World War to Cold War by Michael Dobbs
• Robert Oppenheimer: A Life Insider the Center by Ray Monk
  Within the store we have many more WWII books that I do not have the room to talk about here, but I’m more than willing to talk to you about if you come into the store. Hopefully see you soon or today at the event!
  
  --Halley