The People We Hate at the Wedding by Grant Ginder

Family weddings tend to be perfect memories, preserved in photographs where we all put on our best smiles, for family and friends. Anyone involved in a wedding will tell you there is much more going on beneath the surface of those perfect family photos.

It starts with an invitation, and a guess at how much the invitations cost. Siblings Alice and Paul have always been a pretty united front against their half sister Eloise, a woman who lived a life of privilege and ease that made their middle-class American life seem so ordinary. Now Eloise is getting married, insisting that they come to England for the event, and showing them the life they could never achieve.

Paul is happily partnered with Mark, living in Philadelphia doing kind of controversial work, that most psychologists would kill to do. Alice is on the West Coast, sleeping with her boss, and a still bit lost after Mexico. Being forced to face their mother, and their half sister is enough to push them to breaking points they didn't know they had.

Written in the same dysfunctional vein as Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections and Cynthia D'Aprix-Sweeney's The Nest, you won't be able to look away from the train wreck of a family in The People We Hate at the Wedding by Grant Ginder.

Texts From Jane Eyre by Mallory Ortberg

This reviewer isn’t even sure where to begin with this book.  Imagine your favorite classic authors and famous book characters had access to cell phones.  Add in some goofy modern day language and text-speak and you have Texts From Jane Eyre by Mallory Ortberg.  The result is a book that will have you snorting and LOLing from the very first page.  Here is an example in the form of a short exchange between Jo and Meg from Little Women:

"MEG

MEG

MEG WHAT’S ALL THIS

WHATS ALL THIS I’M HEARING 

ABOUT YOUR GETTING MARRIED

tell me it’s a wretched lie

Jo I don’t know how many more times 

we have to have this conversation

I’ll have it a THOUSAND TIMES if I must

But yes

I’m still marrying John tomorrow

OH GREAT TRIPLE-HORNED GOD

Just like I was planning to yesterday

This is unbearable

And also last month

Answer me this, then

Who exactly do you think is going to play Mercy when 

we put on my version of The Pilgrim’s Progress this summer?

I wrote that part for YOU

Wrote it beautifully in fact

I don’t know darling

She gets a cracking scene with the villain Rodrigo where 

he tries to poison her and she screams and faints and everything

I don’t remember anyone named Rodrigo 

in The Pilgrim’s Progress

THAT’S NEITHER HERE NOR THERE MEG

I’m very sorry

This production will be ruined

Why don’t you ask Amy?

I’m not even going to dignify that with a response"

[end scene]

Ortberg takes you through the text convos of such classics as Rebecca, Hamlet, Les Miserables, Great Expectations and many more.  You’ll even get to see what Edgar Allen Poe was thinking while he wrote The Raven!

In all seriousness, this book is absolutely delightful and with the holiday season fast approaching, would make a wonderful gift for any classic literature lovers in your life. 

Check out a copy of Texts From Jane Eyre from the library today!

Some Luck by Jame Smiley

Jane Smiley’s newest novel is the first in The Last Hundred Years trilogy.  The Pulitzer prize winning author intends to cover 100 years in the life of an Iowa farm family and the first novel, Some Luck, covers the years 1920-1953.  Smiley follows the Langdon family of Denby, Iowa through childbirth, death, the Great Depression and World War II in a unique fashion.  Not only does the author write from many of the different characters points of view, but each chapter itself represents one year. 

We begin with Walter, the 25 year-old father and owner of the farm.  His wife Rosanna is about to give birth to their first child, Frank, and he is ruminating on all of the things that farmers think about: which crops to plant this year, how many animals are there to take care of and can I really afford to farm all of this land? As the years move forward, Smiley introduces us to all of the Langdon children: Frank, Joe, Mary Elizabeth, Lillian, Henry and Claire and their unique personalities.  We see Walter struggle with changing technologies (horses vs. tractors) and Rosanna has her own challenges with loss and religion. 

Each of the Langdon children is different than the last, and we hear a lot from the point of view of Frank, the handsomest and, arguably, the most cunning Langdon child.  When the US gets involved in World War II, he joins the army and becomes a sniper while his sensitive younger brother Joe stays home on a II-A deferment and takes care of the family farm.  Lillian falls in love with a handsome stranger and Henry devours books as fast as he can get his hands on them.  The reader is quickly absorbed into the world that Smiley creates and is soon laughing and crying along with the family. 

Some Luck has been shortlisted for the National Book Award and is a profound family saga.

Expedition to the Baobab Tree by Wilma Stockenstrom

A baobab tree is an enormous species of tree native to, among other places, South Africa. In Expedition to the Baobab Tree by Wilma Stockenstrom, an unnamed slave woman in an unspecified time (the Dutch began importing slaves into South Africa in 1658) is forced to take shelter in the hollow trunk of a baobab tree after she finds herself alone in the African bush. When her master and his wealthy friend had set out on an expedition to find a mysterious inland city, she accompanied them. The unknown territory they ventured into proved to be more dangerous than thought. One by one the members of the party die or disappear, eventually leaving the woman alone. Unfamiliar with the veldt, she does not venture far from the baobab tree. Knowing little about living off the land, she uses her time to scrounge for food and water. While sheltering within the tree, she recalls her past life in a series of non-chronological flashbacks, ending with her childhood abduction by slave traders. A beautiful woman, she was used as a sex slave, purchased by one wealthy man after another. Her life was not as physically difficult as some slaves’, but nevertheless, it was slavery.  Her time and her body were not her own and her children were sold. A South African poet, Wilma Stockenstrom is able to describe the dehumanizing horrors of slavery in a measured tone. Expedition to the Boabab Tree tells a harsh story with gentle language. 

Check out Expedition to the Boabab Tree @ the library!

At Night We Walk in Circles by Daniel Alarcon

At Night We Walk in Circles is a book for the patient reader. Its exposition slowly sets the stage for the meeting of the two main characters: Henry the playwright and Nelson the actor. Nearly fifteen years earlier, during a war of rebellion in an unnamed South American country, Henry had been imprisoned for writing a seditious play, “The Idiot President.” Now that politics and rebellion are no longer an issue, he has planned a revival of the play with a three-man touring group.  Nelson, a rather naïve and directionless young man, joins the cast, leaving behind his widowed mother and estranged girlfriend, Ixta.  As the troupe travels inland, performing in small mountain villages, Henry tells Nelson more about his imprisonment. In the last village, Nelson becomes involved with the elderly mother of a ruthless drug dealer, who believes Nelson is her long-lost youngest son. When he begins to regret having ended his relationship with Ixta, he suddenly bolts, deserting the mother, heading back to the city and angering the drug dealer who sends his thugs after Nelson to exact revenge. Back in the city, Nelson is a changed man, more aggressive and more resolved to revive his relationship with Ixta, who is pregnant and living with another man. Eventually, a tragedy occurs and although a mysterious narrator has been hinting at a bad outcome for Nelson throughout the book, the reader is taken by surprise by the actual event. 

Check out At Night We Walk in Circles @ the library!

A Thousand Pardons by Jonathan Dee

Ben and Helen’s marriage is falling apart. A weekly visit to a marriage counselor only makes things worse.  When Ben, filled with despair, makes a series of reckless decisions, he disgraces himself and destroys his family’s comfortable upper middle class life. Ben disappears into rehab and jail, leaving Helen to deal with the resulting shame and financial problems. She puts their house on the market and moves with her pre-teen daughter to New York City. Despite little work experience, she lands a job with a small public relations firm and proves to be gifted at crisis management.  Her advice, no matter who the client is or what offense has been committed or even if the accusation is true or false, is to make a sincere apology. This strategy always works and the reputation of the restaurant, politician, or grocery store is salvaged. Helen parlays this success into a job with a larger, more prestigious firm. Her job becomes a career but, as the job becomes more demanding, her relationship with her daughter deteriorates. Ben meanwhile returns to the home he had rejected. He secretly reconnects with his daughter through text messaging and hopes to build a semblance of the life he had once so thoroughly rejected. However, the sincere apology does not work as well on Helen as an insincere one does on the general public. She is too angry, the hurt is too personal. Unless she can overcome her resentment, the family will remain torn. A Thousand Pardons demonstrates that it can be harder to accept an apology than make one. 

Those following the Ryan Braun case/ situation may find this to be an interesting spin on apologies and public relations. Check out A Thousand Pardons at the library!

Amity and Sorrow by Peggy Riley

When fire destroys the compound of the polygamous community she belongs to, Amaranth, the first of fifty wives, puts her two daughters, Sorrow and Amity, into a car and drives as long and far as she can. After three days, she falls asleep at the wheel, runs off the road and crashes in front of an Oklahoma farm. The farmer, Bradley, a man with his own problems, is at first unwelcoming. But the women are unable to move on, so eventually his decency compels him to help. He allows them first in the yard, then on the porch, and finally in the kitchen. Amaranth and her teen-age daughters find it difficult to discard the beliefs and rules of their religion, particularly Sorrow, who had an unnaturally close relationship with the Patriarch, her father. Flashbacks reveal what brought Amaranth and many of the other wives to such an unusual way of life, mainly loneliness and uncertainty.  But leaving the cult brings even greater loneliness and uncertainty, particularly for the children who never knew another life. Amity and Sorrow cannot read and write. They have never seen a television or eaten food they have not helped to grow and prepare. They cling to the odd religious garments they have worn all their lives. They yearn for the community of women that raised them. They are afraid to walk in a field or look at a man. Amity, the younger girl, is curious about the new world she finds herself in and more adaptable, but Sorrow, beloved of her father and the Oracle of his community, plots, against her mother’s wishes, to return.  When they fled the community, Amaranth physically tied her daughters together to keep Sorrow from running away. But physical ties are not as strong as emotions and the family is irreparably torn. 

Check out Amity and Sorrow at the library!

How To Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid

The author of How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia proclaims his book to be a self-help book, although, in his own opinion, “…unless you’re writing one, a self-help book is an oxymoron. You read a self-help book so someone who isn't yourself can help you…”  And indeed, this pull-yourself-up-by- your-own-bootstraps book is of no help to anyone but the writer who is “you.” In a country that resembles Pakistan, “you” should (among other things) move to the city, get an education, avoid idealists, work for yourself, befriend a bureaucrat and have an exit strategy. In actual fact, “you” should be smart, lucky and corrupt. “You” should be male and the third child in your family. “You” should take many low-skilled jobs as a way of working “your” way up the economic ladder. Going from a job as a “non-expired-labeled expired-goods” salesman to having your own “bottled hydration” business, in which “you” sell boiled tap water in recycled bottles, enables “you” to make your fortune. To achieve success, “you” must withstand poverty, mistreatment, poor schools, rejections, extortion, threats, embezzlement, abandonment and illness. The book takes “you” from early childhood to frail old age and, despite its subject matter, is very funny and “you” are a very likeable character. 

Check out How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid!

The Round House by Louise Erdrich

Winner of the National Books Award in 2012, The Round House is just as much a coming of age story as it is a crime drama.  Our narrator, thirteen-year-old Joe, is faced with an event that will change life on a North Dakota reservation as he knows it.  His mother Geraldine is attacked and assaulted on a Sunday in the summer of 1988.  With no one else to turn to, her husband Bazil (the local tribal judge) confides in Joe and together the two begin to piece together the details of the attack.  Reservation politics make it difficult to determine where the crime was committed and who should be held responsible and Joe and his father fight for normalcy as they watch Geraldine sink lower and lower into solitude and fear.  As the summer days pass by, Joe and his three friends manage to find out who the attacker is and go to great lengths to seek justice.  Readers who enjoyed Erdrich’s other family sagas such as Love Medicine will recognize many of the names (Mooshum, Nanapush) that crop up time and again.  This book is filled with the quiet grace and heart-breaking complexity of Erdrich’s other novels and paints a truthful portrait of a family who struggles to survive the emotional aftermath of a horrific crime.

The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Avana Mathis

When Hattie, along with her mother and sisters, fled the racial violence of 1920’s Georgia for Philadelphia, she was a hopeful fourteen year old, entranced with the promise of a better life in the North. She was so confident of a bright future she named her first two children Philadelphia and Jubilee. But the North did not provide a better life for Hattie or her family. Her husband, an incorrigible womanizer and carouser, was an unreliable provider. Consequently, Hattie and her nine surviving children lived in poverty as Hattie eked out a sparse existence by sheer force of will. As adults, her children had their own unhappy stories, due to bad choices and physical as well mental illness. Hattie’s children regarded her as a cold, unloving mother. But for Hattie, little more than a child herself when her problems began, providing for her family’s physical needs had left her no time or energy for the emotional side of motherhood. Nevertheless, when problems arose, she did her best to support her children. And in her old age, she took on the responsibility of raising and protecting a granddaughter, hoping that this girl, the twelfth tribe, would be able to break the cycle of tragedy that had dogged her family. The Twelve Tribes of Hattie is the second book chosen for Oprah’s 2.0 Book Club. Like many of Oprah’s other choices, this book involves someone striving to overcome difficult life circumstances. But in this book, many problems are insurmountable. Poverty, racism and disease can overwhelm the strong as well as the weak. Sometimes survival is the only victory that can be claimed.

Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel

Bring Up the Bodies is the second book in Hilary Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell trilogy and, like Wolf Hall, has won the Man Booker Prize. At this point in history, Cromwell must help King Henry rid himself of his second wife, Anne Boleyn. Anne has not given Henry the much-desired male heir and Henry is no longer infatuated with her beauty and intelligence. Instead Jane Seymour, a plain, shy young woman, the exact opposite of Anne, has caught his eye. Cromwell, in loyal service to his king, frees Henry from this queen by forcing five men to confess to adultery with her. Although Cromwell retains the calm and generous demeanor that served him so well in Wolf Hall, in this book he shows a more pragmatic and ruthless side. He uses this opportunity to exact revenge for previous wrongs and rid himself of some of his own enemies. But in Henry’s court, there are always more enemies lurking about, especially those loyal to Queen Katherine and her daughter, Mary. Thomas Cromwell is a man who has risen from very humble beginnings by serving a fickle and tyrannical king. He is bound to have many enemies and very few protectors in court. His position is always precarious. Anne’s execution earns Cromwell a title and additional wealth and power but little gratitude, even from those who benefited from his machinations.

Derby Day by D.J. Taylor

Readers familiar with the novels of Charles Dickens and the Bronte sisters, be it through book, movie, or Masterpiece Theater, will recognize many of the character types in this amusing book.  The unscrupulous cad scheming to marry for money; the befuddled elderly rich man; the cold, self-absorbed daughter; the bankrupt squire hounded by creditors; and the poor young governess who must take a position at a desolate country house are just some of the familiar Victorian characters who populate this book.  The focus of the book is the popular horse race, the Derby, held at Epsom Downs in June of each year. For months before the race, lowlifes, aristocrats and all classes in between plot to make their fortunes off the race and honest citizens are hard put to protect their interests.  The unscrupulous Mr. Happerton defrauds the rightful owner out of possession of a favored horse, Tiberius, and employs a safecracker to raise enough funds to place a large wager on the race. But it is not clear whether he intends to bet on or against his own horse?  On race day the masses flock to Epsom Downs and the various characters Mr. Happerton has used, abused, tricked, cheated and deceived converge on the grounds, looking for payment, justice or revenge. But justice is not always easily achieved and Mr. Happerton is a slippery character.  Nominated for the prestigious Booker Prize, Derby Day is an exciting crime caper but the best of the book is the author’s picture of life and society in Victorian England.

The Headmaster's Wager by Vincent Lam

As a young man Chen Pie Sou (later Pecival Chen) fled his home in China to escape the Japanese invasion. He eventually arrived in Vietnam where he used his Western style education to start an English language school. In the 1960’s, as the United States became more involved in the affairs of Vietnam, Chen’s school attracted many students and Chen became a wealthy man. Secure in the knowledge that bribery could solve any problem, Chen ignored politics and the increasingly intrusive war, until his son was arrested for making a futile political protest. Chen borrowed heavily for the steep bribes demanded for his release. Fearful for his son’s safety and ignorant of the politics of his homeland, Chen sent him to China in the middle of Chairman Mao’s Cultural Revolution. He managed to recoup his wealth with high-stakes gambling and continued to enjoy the pleasures afforded to the rich and powerful in Vietnam.  Not until the war is lost and the Americans leave Vietnam does Chen realize the folly and danger of his willful ignorance. By then it is too late to help his son in China and he and his second family cannot escape Vietnam. The danger to them is so great, he is forced to risk his younger son’s future in a dangerous scheme, his biggest gamble ever.  Check out this suspenseful read @the library!

Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures by Emma Straub

In the late 1930’s, seventeen year old Elsa Emerson leaves her Door County home, headed for Hollywood intent on a movie career. Within ten years she has become Laura Lamont, a glamorous star with an Academy Award.  Married to a powerful movie producer, mother of three, best friends with a wacky red-headed television star, Laura seems to have it all. But this success has come with a price. She is unable to escape the nagging guilt that her fame and good fortune should really belong to a talented older sister who died when Elsa was a child. Her father’s death and mother’s disapproval give her second thoughts about the wisdom of leaving Door County. Her husband’s death leaves her unmoored and drives her career into a tailspin. Faced with dire health, family and money problems, she rallies, simplifies her life style, swallows her pride and takes any work she is able to get. From that point on, her story becomes one of triumph over adversity.

Emma Straub has said that Laura Lamont is based on actress Jennifer Jones. Readers who are familiar with movie and television stars of the black and white era will enjoy identifying the other stars characterized in Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures.

Bright's Passage by Josh Ritter

Henry Bright, a young World War I veteran, has returned to his rural West Virginia home accompanied by his battlefield angel who speaks to him through his horse. When Henry’s young wife dies in childbirth, Henry, at the bidding of his horse/angel, sets fire to his cabin, takes his infant son, his goat and his horse and flees, pursued by the evil Colonel, (the father of his dead wife) and the wildfire he has started.  Flashbacks of Henry’s childhood and service as an infantryman in France show the reader how Henry came to this state of affairs. Possibly shell-shocked by the battlefield brutality he has witnessed, Henry sometimes does his best to follow the angel’s instructions and sometimes resists these instructions as he makes his way across the countryside. When he finally stops at a hotel with many other people who have been rousted from their homes by the fire, his conflict with the Colonel reaches a shockingly violent denouement. The author of Bright's Passage is songwriter Josh Ritter.  His lyrical way with words, which is apparent whether he is describing the wild beauty of Appalachia, the horrors of war or a forest fire, or the fresco paintings in a French church, help us to understand the workings of the mind of a battle fatigued veteran.

Arcadia by Lauren Groff

In the early 1970s, a group of nomad hippies finds a permanent home in rural upstate New York.  One of the many children of this band, Bit (so named for his small size), watches as his parents and the other adults in the group strive to create Arcadia, a back-to-the-land commune based on the principals of equality, hard work and non-violence. Life at Arcadia is physically hard and some personalities clash; but dedication to the ideal prevails and Bit thrives in the emotional warmth of this extended family. By the 1980s, the population of the community has grown and the idealism of the original members is diluted. The commune is eventually destroyed by the drugs and violence of some of the new members. The families scatter and their children must learn to adapt to new lives. Some are more successful than others. Many reject the values of Arcadia and their parents. Bit becomes a teacher, marries a fellow Arcadian and has a daughter. Nearly fifty years after the founding of Arcadia, Bit returns to care for his ailing mother. A flu pandemic is sweeping the world and the oceans are rising. Once more Arcadia is a refuge from the great troubles of the world but not the smaller personal problems of friends and family.

Stone Arabia by Diana Spiotta

Denise Kranis may be the only adult member of her family. Her daughter has moved from southern California to New York City to be part of the arts scene. Her elderly mother is beginning to slide into dementia. And her older brother Nik has never managed to grow out of the self-absorbed, garage band musician he became when his father gave him a guitar for his tenth birthday. A near success, a “no-hit wonder,” Nik has spent his entire adult life writing songs for his self-recorded albums, creating handmade covers and his own liner notes and reviews for them, and numbering, autographing and mailing them to his few fans. Additionally, he writes his Chronicles in which he obsessively documents his life and work, complete with fake facts, fake letters and fake literary quotes. Because Nik lives in this fantasy world, Denise must bear the burden of guiding her family through real life, leaving her few resources for her own problems: the debt she has incurred helping Nik, her sparse social life, her own failing memory, and an unnatural obsession with televised tragic BREAKING NEWS stories which involve shootings, kidnappings and rare diseases. Stone Arabia documents some common problems of modern life: fame (or lack of it), aging, illness, debt and disappointment. They may not be breaking news but they can be difficult and all-consuming for those dealing with them.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce

Harold Fry did not plan to make a pilgrimage when he first stepped out of his house to mail a letter to an old friend, but an actual pilgrimage (a journey for exalted or sentimental reasons) is exactly what his errand turned into. Harold is a mild-mannered, recently retired Englishman who has only ever walked to his car. He and his wife Maureen share a spotlessly clean home and loveless marriage. When Harold receives a letter from an old friend, Queenie, informing him she is in hospice care dying of cancer, he writes a simple letter of condolence. Mulling over his relationship with Queenie as he passes mailbox after mailbox, he finally decides he must see her and convinces himself she will not die as long as he continues to walk. So, without proper shoes or socks, without a change of clothes, without a map or compass, without his cell phone and without returning home to inform his wife of his plans, he sets out to walk five hundred miles to the hospice. At first he is exhilarated by nature and the physical act of walking. Later, bad weather and blisters and sore muscles turn his exhilaration into misery. Yet he persists. While he walks, he recalls his life in small disjointed bits and we come to understand his difficult relationships with his family and his devotion to his dying friend.  Meanwhile, the bewildered Maureen, receiving only an occasional phone call or postcard from her meandering husband, considers the state of her marriage. Will absence make the heart grow fonder, or will Harold’s pilgrimage be the last straw in the burden of regret and recrimination that has plagued their lives for twenty years? The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, long-listed for the prestigious 2012 Booker Prize, is a book for all who enjoy well-drawn characters and unexpected plot twists.

On Black Sisters Street by Chika Unigwe

Four Nigerian women who have come to Antwerp to work in the red light district share living quarters on Zwartesusterstraat.  Although prostitution itself is legal in Belgium, they are powerless economic refugees who are in the country illegally and deeply in debt to the pimp who recruited them.  When one of these women is murdered, the others begin to confide in each other. Each has her own unique background and reason for being there. Each has her own hopes and plans for a better future. This is a story of women in dreadful circumstances who must make impossible choices. Those who loved Little Bee by Chris Cleave will also be enthralled by On Black Sisters Street.

Mr. g by Alan Lightman

Mr g, a supreme being who lives in the Void with his Aunt Penelope and Uncle Deva, decides to create a universe. He begins by creating time, space, matter and three laws to govern them. Sitting back to enjoy the resulting developments, he sees that they are good. However, his pride of accomplishment is disrupted by the disturbing visits of a previously unknown being, Belhor. Belhor stops by periodically to argue philosophical points such as: free will, good and evil, suffering, predestination and immortality. Although he finds Belhor annoying, Mr g enjoys these debates. So, they continue their discussions for eons until the ever-changing universe expands to the point that it can no longer support life.  Mr g is a well-written book which makes physics and philosophy enjoyable to the layman and may be of particular interest to those interested in the recently discovered “god particle.”