What I'm Reading: The Leftovers

In my review of In the Garden of Beasts I mentioned how I love Larson and expect good things from him, so as a result, this book did not surprise me.

To show the other side of the same coin, I present The Leftovers.  I also love Tom Perrotta (use this link to see), so here I was also expecting to enjoy his newest novel The Leftovers.  Like the Larson book, this novel is also on most of the year end Best lists.  So, I expected to enjoy this book greatly.  What I did not expect was to be blown away by this novel.  It also didn't hurt that he returned to setting his books in New Jersey again.  (Click here for more on that)

Perrotta is THE expert at the 21st Century suburban novel.  I have been a suburban girl my entire life (save 2 years in Chicago proper) and am drawn to novels which contemplate the late 20th Century into the 21st Century rise of the burbs.  Each Perrotta novel has a different storyline angle but all of them boil down to him analyzing life in suburbia.

Here his lens has a slightly different focus than previosuly.  We are in a world 3 years after some sort of rapture like event where a significant percentage of the population disappeared into thin air.  We see this changed world where people are still actively healing through a few different points of view.  We have Kevin the town mayor, his wife, who has left the family for a rapture obsessed cult who all wear white and took a vow of silence, his daughter Julie who is experimenting with being a bad girl, their son, who has left college to join another cult, and Nora, a woman in town who lost her husband and both kids to the rapture like event.

The book has nothing to do with the calamitous event and everything to do with how the main characters deal with the after effects of it.  Each character has a different reaction to the event and each reaction is understandable given the magnitude of what happened.

What makes The Leftovers different from the other literary post-apocalyptic novels that have become so popular this past year is that the world for those left behind is not apacalyptic in any way.  Only people are missing.  In fact, three years after the fact, everything has pretty much gone back to complete normalcy.

You read The Leftovers if you want to take a long hard look at your own comfortable suburban existence and think about what truly makes you happy.  That is what all 5 of the main characters are forced to do by circumstance.  And they each find a different path to follow.  It is as if they are all in a form of mourning (some mourning the loss of a person or people, others the world as they knew it, and others going through adolescent growing pains in a changed world), and the time we are with them in the story they all hit bottom and begin the long climb back up.  Just like real life, some have made better choices than others; and therefore, some will be happier than others. But, all have to find their own way.

As usual, Perrotta's prose is smooth and realistic, but insightful in a way that makes you want to stop an ponder his characters' motivations.  His descriptions of suburban American life are also spot on, but not in a completely negative way.  Perrotta has a love for the suburbs that writers in previous generations did not.  He appreciates what that life has to offer, but he is also reminding his readers that just because you think you are happy and successful, you may not truly be.  You have to be happy with yourself and your life choices, not just with the stuff you have or the appearances you keep up.

The pacing here is surprisingly brisk for literary fiction.  The first third is more methodical as we meet the characters and enter their points of view, but after that it steadily gains speed like a truck going downhill.  Also I should point out that the ending is very open, but each character does make a big decision about where the next stage of their life should take them. There is no way you can agree with all of them, but they all make sense for each character.

The Leftovers is a thought provoking literary novel disguised as a genre departure. You could read it on the surface as a story of life after this event, or you can read it as a warning to yourself to find what truly makes you happy before it is too late.

Three Words That Describe This Book: multiple points of view, thought provoking, calamitous event

Readalikes:  This may strike you as odd, but when reading The Leftovers I could not stop thinking about how similar it was to The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold.  Both novels begin with a horrible event in which loved ones are lost, but then neither book continues to be about that event.  Both continue to be about those who are left on earth and how they each deal with their grief.

I read The Radleys by Matt Haig this past year also and it is very similar to The Leftovers.  Click here for more.

Jonathan Tropper is also a good readalike for Perrotta. This is Where I Leave You deals with one man's struggle to come to terms with a few different personal catastrophes.  Like Perrotta, Tropper has a sharp eye for detail and criticism but also a good sense of humor.

If you wanted more of the science fiction aspect than The Leftovers gave you, but you still want the literary elements, try Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake or The Year of the Flood.  The novels are loosely connected.

And that is it for the books I finished in 2011.  Next up, my Best of the Year List...

What I'm Reading: December 2007

This month I read 3 different books which all came out (at least in America) over the last half of 2007. I don't always read only "new" books, but these were books that couldn't wait.

After loading it on my computer back in July, I finally listened to Lisa See's Peony in Love. Much like her best selling Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Peony in Love tells the story of the experiences of young girls in China, this time in the 17th-century. Along with the details of how women lived at this time and place, See also introduces a famous Chinese opera, its effect on young women, the study of literature, and a ghost story into her seemingly traditional historical family saga. I was pleasantly surprised and very much enjoyed the supernatural aspects.

Readers who enjoyed the use of opera in the storyline would also like Bel Canto by Ann Patchett. Those who are interested in historical women's lives should try A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini or The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. However, I would also highly recommend See's own memoir of her racially mixed family, On Gold Mountain to any reader who has enjoyed any of her novels or those by Amy Tan.

You may have noticed in my Favorite books I Read This Year post that Joe Hill's 20th Century Ghosts made the cut. I finished this collection of short stories by 2007's it boy (and Stephen King's son) and was blown away. Granted, I like my stories to be a bit off, so I was probably going to enjoy this read, but what I really appreciated was how creative the stories were. Even a reader such as myself who has been there, and done that with "horror" stories was able to be surprised. The stories range from out right horror, to genre spoofs, to suspense, all the way to even a bit sweet. This collection was originally published in England, but with the success of Heart-Shaped Box, it was finally published in the US late in 2007.

Similar authors who also write short stories and novels with the same feel and depth of imagination as Joe Hill are Stephen Millhauser and Kevin Brockmeier.

Right at the close of 2007, I also finished Tom Perrotta's The Abstinence Teacher. I have been a Perrotta fan way back to the early days of The Wishbones and although I did enjoy his newest offering, it was not my favorite. The basic plot revolves around the lives of a female Sex Ed teacher being forced to teach an abstinence curriculum and a male former drug-addict turned evangelical. The two are both missing something in their lives and are drawn to each other in their quest to fulfill themselves. The novel is told from their alternating points of view, and sometimes, we see the same scene from each character's pov.

I appreciated Perrotta's even handed look at both perspectives. He also did a great job, as usual, of not simplifying complex issues and feelings. And, the book has a realistically open ending, which I loved but may drive some readers crazy. However, with his last two books, I feel Perrotta may have lost a bit of his sense of humor. Maybe it is just part of his personal "growing-up" process. No matter, he is still the best at capturing authentic suburbia. right now.

There are many readalikes for Perrotta and this novel in particular. Richard Russo's Empire Falls works here, as do all of the books in Richard Ford's Frank Bascombe trilogy. For a female perspective on modern family and how abstinence may or may not work, try Julia Glass' Three Junes

Here's to Happy Reading in 2008.

What I'm Reading: The Radleys

Last month I read Matthew Haig's The Radleys.  I read it both because I have enjoyed Haig in the past, and because I agreed to write an annotation for it for the annual ARRT bibliography, the theme of which this year is YA books for adults and adult books for YAs.  Here is what I submitted:

Peter and Helen Radley live with their 17 year old son Rowan and their 15 year old daughter Clara in suburban London.  They appear to be a normal family.  Peter is the local doctor, Helen is a stay-at-home mom in a book club, Clara and Peter are a bit unpopular at school, but have the normal teenage angst and crushes.  However, there are a few unexplainable oddities about the Radleys. Animals hate them; so much so that they have never heard a bird sing.  Rowan gets terrible rashes from the sun and Clara, who is becoming a vegan, is sick to her stomach.  Oh, but there is an explanation.  You see, the Radleys are actually abstaining vampires trying to live a normal life.  Peter and Helen have not even told their kids their secret, that is, until Clara defends herself too successfully from the unwanted advances of a drunk male classmate.  With its short chapters, alternating viewpoints from each family member, and heart racing action in the final third of the book, the Radleys is a compelling look into the danger of keeping secrets and the bonds of family, sure to appeal to any teen or adult who has ever felt like an outsider.

Appeal: The appeal here is that this is an excellent family drama novel which happens to feature vampires.  It is a great choice for readers who want to sample the vampire craze (although it is waning now) without reading a paranormal romance.  In the spirit of this blog's title it is...vampires for all!

With the alternating point of view and short chapters headed with quotes from the fictional "Abstainer's Handbook," it is also a quick and compelling read.  As a reader I was drawn into the dilemmas and  conflicts each character was experiencing. I got to peek inside each of their heads, see where they were coming from, and empathize with everyone, even when they were at odds with one and other.  I got to know each character, warts and all.

The short chapters and switching pov also moved the book along at a brisk pace.  It was great to read at the pool and it was just dramatic enough to be intriguing without tipping into melodrama territory. 

The coming of age theme for the teens is also a big draw here.  These kids are such outcasts and they are trying to fit in, but they have no idea the true reason for their "oddness."  It is heart-breaking at first, but then, as the book goes on and Rowan and Clara "find themselves," I was so happy for them.  The ending really made me want to stand up and cheer. 

Many people who try to stay away from vampire books as a rule, but enjoy tales of family secrets, family bonds, and suburban dystopia should give this book a try.  Don't be scared off by the vampires.  This is a solid addition to those popular subgenres, by a talented writer who weaves a great story.  You will miss a great read if you are biased by the vampire angle.  The vampire stuff is merely a way to illustrate the family's outsider status.

This is a book I will give out to a lot of readers. In fact I am going to put it on my Browser's Corner list right now.

Three Words That Describe This Book: family secrets, alternating points of view, compelling pace

Where This Book Took Me (Summer Reading Feature):  Suburban, 21st Century England

Readalikes:  Haig's suburban family drama reminds me most of Tom Perrotta.  Specifically I would suggest Little Children here, but Perrotta is also set to add a supernatural twist with his pending 8/31 release of The Leftovers.

Elizabeth Berg also writes solid family dramas which do not tip over to melodramatic (as Jodi Picoult can) and would appeal to readers here.  Try Dream When You're Feeling Blue which I read here and did for a book discussion here.

Jonathan Tropper writes family drama's that appeal to both men and women.  I read How to Talk to a Widow.

For a story about family, secrets, and relationships with a supernatural twist, try Forever by Pete Hamill.  Read what I had to say about it in detail here.

Finally, if you have a reader who wants the family secrets with more supernatural and more drama, try The Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness.  Again, click here to see my full review.

Working With Specific Appeal Factors: New Jersey

This past week two things happened to remind me of how specific some reader's can be when it comes to what appeals to them.

The first and most obvious event was that appeal was the topic of conversation in my RA class at Dominican University on Wednesday night. The students are being asked to think about why they like certain books and don't enjoy others. Besides the most obvious appeal points in a book, things like its pacing, characterization, storyline, frame/setting, tone/mood, and style/language, people have certain things that they will like (or dislike) in any book.

These will be completely individual to each reader and not always evident when conducting the RA interview. This leads to me and the second thing that reminded me of how specific I can be when it comes to what appeals to me personally: my best friend from high school came out from my home state of NJ, sans kids and husband, to spend the weekend.

Her visit also reminded me that as a displaced Jersey girl myself, I have a peculiar appeal, at least peculiar here in Northern Illinois.  I will read any book if it features NJ, fiction or nonfiction. It can be totally counter to everything I generally like in a book, but if NJ is featured prominently, I will like it.  What can I say, you can take the girl out of Jersey but you can't take the Jersey out of the girl.

In that vein, I thought I would share some of my favorite books that feature the great state of NJ.

• Close to Shore: A True Story of Terror in an Age of Innocence by Michael Capuzzo (nonfiction about the fatal shark attacks at the Jersey Shore in 1916)
• Shadow Divers: The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II by Robert  Kurson (nonfiction about the discovery of a German U-boat off the coast of NJ)
• The Wishbones Joe College, and Election all by Tom Perrotta (before moving to the Boston area, novelist Perrotta set all of his books in his home state of NJ.)
• Two Guys From Verona by James Kaplan (a remake of Shakespeare in Verona, NJ)
• The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (the Pulitzer Prize winning novel about a Dominican, speculative fiction fanboy living in NJ)
• The Frank Bascomb Trilogy by Richard Ford (three of my all-time favorite books; click here to see what I thought when I read the concluding novel)

Don't forget that Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum lives in NJ and F. Paul Wilson's Repairman Jack lives in NYC but is from NJ.

I also love books that feature circuses, baseball, academic settings, and non-battle Civil War books, but those lists are for another time.  What about your specific appeals?

Monday Discussion: Homesick Reading

I just returned from 10 wonderful days of vacation touring Boston, Maine, and Nova Scotia, Canada (more on that later this week).  While on vacation I was reading Ahab's Wife: Or, The Star-gazer by Sena Jester Naslund which is very ocean and New England centric.  I am still reading it, as this was an active vacation ( less time to just sit and read), but it fit the bill for the trip.  My husband read books by two Nova Scotia authors What Is Left the Daughter by Howard Norman and Island : Collected Short Stories Alistair MacLeod, both of which we own in the BPL collection.

As the vacation moved toward its conclusion, I was not really homesick, but I was beginning to miss the things I love about where I live.  This got me thinking, we spend all of this time helping our patrons (and ourselves) pick out books for vacations or special times in our lives, but what do we read when we are missing something?

I know for me, as a native of New Jersey, although I love living in Chicagoland and couldn't imagine living anywhere else right now, I do miss Jersey now and then.  For that reason, I do actively seek out books which are set there when I am feeling a bit homesick.  Some favorites are Richard Ford's Bascombe trilogy or Tom Perrotta's Election or Joe College.

But even people who have always lived in the same place miss something now and then.  When I am feeling a bit out of sorts, I tend to read a book by an author I know and trust.  This puts me in a comfortable zone where I can reminisce happily.  For me that means, light series or even an old classic which brought me joy years before.  I would suggest Ian Sansom's Mobile Library Mysteries or Little Women here.

But what about you.  For today's Monday discussion, when you are "homesick" for something familiar, what books do you turn to?

Click here for the Monday Discussion archive which includes everyone's comments.  Feel free to add your own to an older discussion.  People are accessing the page all of the time.

Too Many New Books!

I never thought I could have too big a pile of books to read. My list of books is always longer than I will ever get to in my life and I have long ago come to terms with this fact, but a few circumstances have led to my physical pile of books beginnning to literally loom over me.

First, 2 of my favorite authors, Tom Perrotta and Richard Russo have new books. Next, my name came up for Thousand Splendid Suns. And the biggest culprit, my local library's move into its brand new building. When the temporary library closed down for the move into the new $10 million facility, they were encouraging patrons to take out as many books as they wanted with 8 week loan periods. I took advantage and grabbed a ton of books, mostly from the new book shelf. Some will make it in my end of the month reading post. Others that I may or may not get to include William's Gibson's Spook Country and and Angelica by Arthur Phillips.

At first I was happy to have access to these newer titles for so long; however, now that I have finished a few, I am struggling with what to do with them. The library is still not open and they would prefer we wait to return them until the end of this month. And being a good Library Trustee, I am trying to follow their wishes. I feel like a kid on Halloween after pigging out on to much candy. You can have too much of a good thing.

The good news for you. In a few days I will have some interesting books to recount; books I would not have read this month if not for these unique circumstances.

But now to dive into the thickest Richard Russo book I have ever seen.

What I'm Reading: Becky's Favorite Books I Read This Year

Here are my Top 10 Favorite Books I Read in 2011, in no particular order. Please use the links provided for my full reviews.

• Swamplandia! by Karen Russell: the descriptions of the Everglades alone makes it hands down my favorite book this year
• The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta: a favorite author who keeps surprising me by getting better with each book
• The Known World by Edward P. Jones: again, I am sorry it took me so long to read this masterpiece.
• Before I Go To Sleep by S. J. Watson: a better suspense story I did not read this year.

 

• The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern: a better pure story I was not told this year.
• Chew  by John Layman: I read some very good dark graphic novels this year (click here and here), but nothing surprised me as much as this original new series.
• The Sisters Brothers by Patrick de Witt: how can I not love a book that I can describe to patrons as a cross between the Cohen Brothers movies O Brother, Where Art Thou and  No Country for Old Men?

 

• The Caretaker of Lorne Field by Dave Zeltserman: I read some great horror this year (click here to see more) but nothing stayed with me more than this one.
• Centuries of June by Keith Donohue: for its ability to be original AND entertaining
• Full Dark No Stars by Stephen King: not horror, but these four psychological suspense novellas were riveting and frightening, especially in the excellent audio version I listened to.

I have a few overall comments and observations to make about my reading also:

• There was no nonfiction on my final top 10. I tried to go back and find something I enjoyed enough to bump one of these novels off, but I could not. I really liked both In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson and At Home by Bill Bryson, but I enjoy both authors and expected to enjoy these books.  As a result, my enjoyment did not surprise me as much as it did with the 10 books in the list above.
• For similar reasoning 2 other novels just missed the cut, Faithful Place by Tana French and Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson.

Finally, I always save at least one title from one of the year's best lists to start the next year off with. Example from year's past in this tradition  Await Your Reply (on most of 2009's Best Lists, made mine in 2010), Olive Kitteridge (on most of 2008's Best Lists, made mine in 2009), The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (on most of 2007's Best Lists, made mine in 2008).  That is a good track record for this year's selection, The Art of Fielding,  to have to live up to.  I will have a report on it sometime in January, but it will be an entire year before I will know how it pans out in comparison to everything else I read in 2012.
Thank for following me on yet another year of reading.