Month: January 2015

Top five time… and the authors of the two books represented at #4 and #5 have both appeared on my top lists of the year before. This is Thrity Umrigar’s second visit to the Top 5, with her sublime novel The World We Found coming in at #4 in 2011. Marilynee Robinson came in at #2 in 2008 with Home, the second of the Gilead trilogy, for which this year’s #4 book of the year is the conclusion.

#5 – The Story Hour by Thrity Umrigar

Forgiveness is a topic too often left unexplored. In Thrity Umrigar’s beautifully drawn domestic drama, an Indian immigrant, who harbors a life-altering secret rashly attempts suicide and finds herself in the care of an African-American therapist who is harboring a secret of her own. As the two women become unlikely friends their lives become entangled, but when these secrets are revealed/discovered, the limits of their friendship and their capacity for forgiveness will be tested.

Thrity’s work at spinning domestic, cross-cultural drama is elegant and powerful. Characters shift across reader sympathies, and with the exception of one character who is decidedly one-dimensional, they all reveal hidden depths that make them seem all too real.

Chalk up another strong novel from best-selling author Thrity Umrigar!

#4 – Lila by Marilynne Robinson

Lila is the third in Marilynne Robinson’s exquisite Gilead trillogy that began with Gilead and Home. Lila revisits the Reverend John Ames, late in his life, but is centered around Lila, a wandering woman, taken as a child by the mysteriously scarred woman known only as Doll. For as long as she can remember, Lila’s life has been a hard one, although she wouldn’t describe it as such, being the only life she has had. After her life with Doll is ended, she reaches her lowest point before finding herself living in an abandoned shack in the outskirts of Gilead. It is there that she makes the acquaintance of Reverend John Ames.

It is there that Lila’s life makes a turn. While she struggles with her thoughts, and her beliefs as she reads the bible, she also slowly learns the trust Reverend Ames, who grows to love her.The two eventually marry and start a family, but it is Lila’s journey from harrowing pragmatism to joy and hope that makes LILA beautiful. Marilynne Robinson is a master storyteller, and her words carry with them a spirituality that transcends the religious.

Other than being written by women, there’s not a whole lot in common with the sixth and seventh books on my list. One is from a well-known author that I’d never read, but she so charmed me at a Random House author breakfast, that I thought I’d give her work a try. The other was from an author whose previous novel was #5 on my list of best reads in 2012!  Interesting side note: my #6 novel could be considered similar to Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life which I found tedious and couldn’t even finish. Obviously, I would disagree.

#7 – Lucky Us by Amy Bloom

Lucky Us is a new coming-of-age novel set in the 40s and 50s by best-selling novelist Amy Bloom. Eva is a young woman left by her mother at the home of her estranged husband, Edgar, on the day of his new wife’s funeral. There Eva meets her new big sister, Iris, with whom she runs away with as Iris seeks stardom in Hollywood. There they befriend Franciso, a gay hair and make-up man who helps Iris on her way up and subsequently down the Hollywood ladder before a surprise reunion with Edgar leads all three of them to Brooklyn where Eva settles into her life.

For the first half of the book, Eva is mainly a spectator in her the life of her family. Too young to work, unable to attend school, Eva helps her sister try to achieve her goals while carefully observing the vagaries of life. A series of sudden tragedies push Eva into a more active role in her own life, as she finds herself without a support system and people who are dependent upon her.

Through it all, Bloom keeps things light, even when dealing with difficult situations. She’s a great writer, using language that is clear yet beautifully composed, and creating voices that are unique and sympathetic. I had the privilege of seeing Ms. Bloom talk about her at the time forthcoming novel at Book Expo America last May and found to be utterly charming, strong-willed, and hilarious.

#6 – My Real Children by Jo Walton

Patricia is feeling confused today. At least that’s what the note by her bed tells her. In fact, at her advanced age, in the nursing home where she lives, she often feels confused and forgetful, but what’s she remembers distinctly are the two lives that crowd her memory. One where she married Mark and raised four children in a world that is at peace and has a colony on the moon; and another where she spent her life with her beloved Bee and their three children, on a beleaguered planet suffering from nuclear detonations and fatal fallout.

Jo Walton, whose last novel, Among Others is my afore-mentioned #5 read of 2012, spins a straight-forward, subtle tale of a woman’s life, or rather, two lives, and how a single decision can propel that life into two very different paths. And could that one person’s quiet, unassuming life also have major repercussions across the globe? Just like the theory that the flap of a butterfly’s wing can cause a hurricane halfway around the world, Walton wonders if a single decision could make the difference between peace and violence. Which life would you choose if given the choice?

Here’s a pair of books that really have very little in common other than the fact that their titles both begin with the letter “S” and they’re both excellent books that are among the best books I read in 2014! Neither are my usual fare either. #11 is a non-fiction science ebook, and #10 is Chick-Lit. Of course, the former is a book about bumblebees, one of my favorite animals, and the latter is written by a beloved soap opera, returning to writing, and showing off some top notch improvement.

#11 – A Sting in the Tale: My Adventures with Bumblebees by Dave Goulson

Bumblebees are among my favorite creatures, and Dave Goulson’s book is simply delightful. Packed with fascinating scientific and historical facts about bumblebees, Goulson also fills the book with charming anecdotes, and droll humor. As a British scholar, the focus of Goulson’s research is understandably centered around that country, and the once-ubiquitous English gardens that allowed the bumblebee to thrive for so many years. Goulson does follow the research far and wide, from South America to Tasmania. He also peppers the book with related informational tidbits on honeybees, butterflies, badgers, martins, echidnas, wasps. and all sorts of other creatures.

Goulson wraps up his popular scientific narrative by talking about the BBCT, or Bumblebee Conservation Trust, a charity devoted to the Bumblebee, that he started several years ago. He adroitly makes the larger connection of the importance of the bumblebee, and all the pollinators of the world, and our planet’s success.

#10 – Scared Scriptless by Alison Sweeney

Scared Scriptless is Alison Sweeney’s second novel set in Holllywood featuring a female protagonist who is involved in the entertainment business. You could label it chick lit, romance, or beach reading, and you would be correct, but its easy, comfortable and warm style really transcends genres and puts a smile on your face while you’re reading. When I’m reading Sweeney’s novels, I feel like I’m listening to her tell a story. I’m on the set of a busy television show shoot; I’m pitching a reality show to hard-nosed executives, and on a date with an impossibly handsome, incredibly popular television/movie star and dealing with all that entails. The details that Sweeney infuses into her novel, which can only come from her first person experience, translates to beautifully and seamlessly into the story that I really feel like I’m spending time with the author herself.

The plot is engaging enough without the Hollywood touches. Maddy Carson is the script supervisor (have you ever read anything about a script supervisor?) on a hit TV show — but is not comfortable with the Hollywood entertainment business life. She’s a down home gal, with deep roots in her family’s hometown in the mountains. When an opportunity presents itself to help her family and home community by pitching a reality show about her town, she’s tentative, but throws herself into the project, alongside her boss, Craig, who she is secretly dating. Then there’s this gorgeous actor who has just joined the show how is not so subtly pursuing her despite her “no actors” policy. Can the uber-organized Maddy reconcile her discomfort with Hollywood to become a real force to be reckoned with in the business? And will she figure out her love life despite her protestations against grand romantic gestures? And how many movie quotes will I catch as Maddy and her colleagues toss them about throughout the novel?

If you’re not looking for something serious and full of literary allusions, and you’re curious, even a little, about the mechanics of creating a TV show, give Scared Scriptless a try. You might be pleasantly surprised.

The next two books on my top list are both new authors to me, and are the first two of several high-end speculative fiction titles on my list. It was a good year for me with science fiction. It was also a really good year for women authors, with 10 in the top 15 (and 13 in the top 19.)

#13 – Duplex by Kathryn Davis

This is one unusual book. Kathryn Davis merges the tropes of science fiction (robots, sorcerers) with 50’s domestic drama. Mary’s neighborhood is populated by boys who play sports, and girls who trade cards. The robots who live next door are curious, but most of the time they retain their human shape. When the sorcerer drives down the street one day, Mary’s life, and the life of her neighbors, is changed forever. Then there’s that house by the ocean, where all sorts of confounding events occur. And just what happened to her school crush anyway?

I’m not sure I quite understand what Davis was getting at with Duplex, but I loved the tone and the structure of the book. The concepts are grand yet personal. It’s not the type of book where I necessarily needed to know exactly what was going on, but it was fascinating to read, and so entertaining, that I just let that all go. If you’re willing to trust you’ll have an interesting ride, you will want to give Duplex a try.

#14 – Memory of Water by Emmi Ita?ranta

A dark future, where potable water is scarce, and seventeen-year-old Noria Kaitio struggles to learn the secrets of the past to determine how the world came to be the way it is. While learning to become a tea master and eventually take over for her father, Noria learns of the dangerous secret that puts her at risk with the government. She also discovers old technology that reveals even more secrets that she finally must act upon in the hopes that knowledge will help to change the world.

Emmi Ita?ranta is a talented writer, weaving together sentences that create stunning visuals. Memory of Water weaves and falls like flowing water ultimately seeking it’s destination. This is a somber tale, filled with foreboding, but ultimately there is a hopefulness infused into the resolution. Noria is a wonderful character, both reflective and proactive, and the future Emmi paints is intricate and fascinating.