Sarah's Picks

This is classic David Sedaris, our modern day, quirkier Mark Twain, not afraid to take on any subject, regard-less of whom it offends or how personally embarrassing it may be, from the pleasures of a colonoscopy to the childraising errors made by today's parents. As usual, my favorites are the stories of David's family (Memory Laps is worth the price of the book and then some) which are simultaneously hysterically funny and painfully true (emotionally, if not factually!). David Sedaris is a national treasure (tell his dad if you see him).

Jill McCorkle's new novel, Life After Life, the story of the people living - and sometimes dying -  at Pine Haven Estates retirement facility, is a  treat to read. The characters are complex and rich, make unexpected choices, and give the reader an intimate view of the world from those who have done a lot of living. There are several characters I fell in love with: Joanna, the hospice worker, Abby, the young girl from next door who finds a refuge at Pine Havens, and  tattooed C.J. who does nails and perms,  but all of them are well worth knowing, and some of the least lovable are the most rewarding to get to know of all. (on sale 3/26/13, Algonquin)

Oakland, California, 2005: Telegraph Avenue is home to a used record store, Brokeland Records, specializing in blues, jazz, funk, R&B and whatever else ignites the passions of partners Archy Stallings and Nat Jaffe. While the store is threatened with a new megastore moving in down the block, the partners’ wives, dedicated midwives, face their own threat when a birthing goes wrong.  Add in Archy’s father, a blaxploitation star of the 70’s attempting a comeback, local politics, an unsolved murder, and two young teens at loose ends and you have a wonderful read ahead of you. Chabon creates a complete world with real and engaging characters that leave you regretting they aren’t real.

 

There is a hypnotic quality to Charles Frazier’s new novel, a combination of uncommon characters, a suspenseful plot, and a place that is both familiar and unsettling. In the 1960’s, on the remote side of a lake in the North Carolina mountains, a young woman has taken refuge from life to be the caretaker of a formerly grand lodge, now sinking into disrepair. Her isolation is first breached by the arrival of the two disturbed children of her sister, then by the overly friendly heir of the lodge, and, finally, by a dangerous person tracking her and the children.

Nightwoods combines Frazier’s masterful language and character development with a story of suspense that kept this reader up way too late, both savoring the story and desperate to know the outcome.

Richard Ford’s first two sentences give it all away: “First, I’ll tell about the robbery our parents committed. Then the murders, which happened later.”  The narrator, Dell Parsons, is a 15 year old boy in Great Falls, Montana in 1960.  So how is it that Richard Ford makes the actual telling of the tale, leading up to the robbery and murders, so suspenseful and moving? Dell and his twin sister take different journeys trying to escape their parents mistakes and find their place in the world.. Ford uses beautiful prose to create compelling characters and a vivid sense of place in Montana and Canada. He ultimately shows us it’s how we choose to tell our stories - to ourselves - that matters more than what those stories actually are.

The first story in this amazing collection is well worth the price of the book. And every other story, while following a Jewish theme, is completely different from every other. In the title story 2 high school girlfriends are reunited 20 years later, one now married to a Hasidic Jew and living in Israel, the other living a seemingly more relaxed life with her husband in South Florida. This is a story I will read several times, each time more slowly. Reviewers have called this collection a tour de force with good reason. Read it; you’ll be very glad you did.