Book Porn; or, Are Book Publishers Really Dealers in Addictive Substances?

Are book publishers just drug pushers in disguise? I sometimes wonder. Certainly, every time I take a step back to look at a list of upcoming books, I begin to think that for all the agonizing that has been going on about the crisis in which publishers find themselves, they really have one big ace tucked firmly up their sleeves. They have the books that we all want to read.

Sorry, but I'm just not queuing up to read a vast number of the books that are made available by Amazon's own publishing divisions, however intriguing I find their business model and however delighted I am that it has created new career options for many authors whom the short-sighted business policies of the New York behemoth publishers have left to flounder. I've tried several and thus far my reactions boil down to "meh". I'll keep trying, and I'll let you know if that changes.

I'll always, always, always be scrutinizing new offerings from a handful of smaller publishers that have firmly established themselves as my favorites, based on my tremendous success with their offerings. A while back, I summarized some of these and listed their attractions. Today, I'd add the likes of Graywolf Press to the list, thanks to books like The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison, which I'll try to get around to discussing one day soon on these cyber pages.

But around this time of year, I sit down to pull together a list of books that I am desperately eager to read, and I realize just why book publishers might do very, very well as peddlers of various illegal and intoxicating substances of the kind of things our parents told us we're supposed to "just say NO" to. Their wares are seductive and appealing. And I know that just like a really great drug might do, they'll take me away from ugly realities -- or at least, catapult me into someone else's ugly reality, reminding me that my own really isn't all that bad, after all. They'll make me believe in some greater wisdom. They'll inspire me. They'll show me wonderful imaginations at work; tremendous writing. And yes, there will be some disappointments, too, but that's part of the game.

And unlike the drug pushers, they get to promote their wares publicly. So to share some of the pain of anticipation, I'm going to tell you about some of the books that I'm most eager to read in the coming few months. Call it drugs; call it book porn; call it whatever you want. All I know is that, one way or another, by hook or by crook, these are the books that will be finding their way onto my shelves or my Kindle. A book habit can indeed become a very, very scary thing.

December 2014
Moriarty by Anthony Horwitz (my most coveted and most elusive mystery books of the winter!)
The Lonely War: One Woman's Account of the Struggle for Modern Iran by Nazila Fathi (timely...)
The Convert's Song by Sebastian Rotella (people keep telling me this is an author to read)
When Books Went to War by Molly Guptill Manning (if they packed 'em, I want to know why)

January 2015
Honeydew by Edith Pearlman (yum, more short stories by this truly amazing author)
The Honest Folk of Guadeloupe by Anthony Williams (new author, but from Soho Press)
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins (lotsa buzz about this suspense novel)
Once Upon a Revolution by Thanassis Cambanis (likely to be a good book about the Arab Spring)
The Orphan Sky by Ella Leya (yes, set in Azerbaijan, but why not?)

February 2015
Shame and the Captives by Thomas Keneally (WWII POWs in Australia)
The Siege Winter by Ariana Franklin (finished posthumously by her daughter)
Discontent and Its Civilizations by Mohsin Hamid (non-fiction anthology by a fave novelist)
H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald (falconry; grief; it just won the Samuel Johnson Prize)
We Are Pirates by Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket writes for grownups!)
When the Doves Disappeared by Sofi Oksanen (Estonian resistance to the Soviets; lotsa buzz)
The Last Good Paradise by Tatjana Soli (I loved her debut novel)

March 2015
The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro (how to resist??)
Leaving Berlin by Joseph Kanon (a 50/50 chance of being a winning suspense yarn)
Epitaph by Mary Doria Russell (the sequel to Doc; it's time for the OK Corral...)
The Porcelain Thief by Hsu Huan (scouring China for buried... china?)
Mademoiselle Chanel by C.W. Gortner (a move to the 20th century for this author)
Meet Me in Atlantis by Mark Adams (the quest for the lost city...)
Rebel Queen by Michelle Moran (historical fiction about the Indian mutiny)
Last Wake by Erik Larson (The Lusitania's sinking; marking the centenary)

Some Ideas for Great Summer Reading

I don't know what it's like where you are, but here in New York, the temperatures are heading back into the 90s this weekend after spending last weekend flirting with 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Thoroughly unpleasant, by any stretch of the imagination. Whether you're spending the summer poolside, beachside or stuck indoors cozying up to your air conditioner, here are some tips for some fun, reasonably unchallenging books, all of which meet my definition of being "thumping good reads" and that will take your mind off the heat!

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn: This is a novel that has got lots of new fans, and it deserves every one of them. The epitome of a "can't-put-it-down" rollercoaster ride that starts when a young woman goes missing on her fifth wedding anniversary. Another Scott Peterson/Laci Peterson story? We are seeing the story through the eyes of her husband, who acknowledges he's great at the art of omitting material facts -- so how reliable is he in what he tells us? Alternatively, how reliable is Amy -- can we trust what she is telling us? Just when you think you know what is coming next, Flynn whisks you off in another direction. This has to be the best thriller I'll read this year.

 The Taliban Cricket Club by Timeri Murari: What if... the Taliban decided to reach out the world through cricket? And what if one of the only ordinary Afghans to know how to play the game is actually a young woman, educated at a college in India? And what if she and her male cousins form a team as a way of helping them all escape the horrors of Taliban rule? Unexpectedly, this is an entertaining, amusing and heartwarming tale, one with sharp undercurrents reminding us just what is at stake for Rukhsana, a frustrated journalist who has risked her life to tell the outside world what is happening to Afghanistan's women under Taliban rule, and now may be facing the prospect of sharing their fate. At heart, it's a conventional romantic suspense yarn, but with enough bite, edge and novelty to make it compelling reading.

Defending Jacob by William Landay: There are several novels out right now about children or young adults committing -- or being charged with -- unspeakable crimes, and the adults who defend them. There is The Good Father by Noah Hawley and The Child Who by Simon Lelic -- and then there is this novel, in my opinion the best of the bunch. A classmate of Jacob's is found murdered, and Andy Barber -- his father, and the local assistant district attorney -- overseas an investigation into the crime. Suddenly,  Jacob is charged with the crime... and a father's protective instincts go into overdrive. Is he seeing things clearly, or is he choosing to ignore uncomfortable truths? The ending has one of the best twists imaginable.

Taft 2012 by Jason Heller: This is the novel to pick up when you just can't take any more political attack ads on television; when you want to tell both presidential candidates their handlers to put a sock in it. It's a gleeful romp of a book, that imagines what might have happened had William Henry Taft drifted off into the gardens of the White House during the inauguration of his successful rival, Woodrow Wilson, and ... vanished! Flash forward a century, and Taft finds himself waking up in the muddy grounds of his former White House domain -- and into a different political reality altogether. Heller has tremendous fun with what Taft discovers -- pleasant and revolting -- about the 21st century. While some of the gotcha moments are very predictable -- Taft and TV! Taft and the Internet! -- that doesn't spoil the fun, as long as you're not wedded to the idea of thinking logically about it all. Just enjoy the ride.

Double Cross by Ben Macintyre: This author has done several other books focusing on spy intrigues during World War II, and this, the latest, is easily the best of the bunch. It's the story of a motley crew of double agents -- a Serbian playboy, a Peruvian heiress, a Polish nationalist, a Spanish chicken farmer -- worked with British intelligence to mislead the Germans about the timing and direction of the D-day invasion. Bits of this story -- especially about Agent Garbo, Juan Pujol -- have already come out, but this is a great story that covers the experiences of a host of other people, with all their foibles and eccentricities. Worth reading for the exploits of one man convinced that the secret to keeping secrets and deception involved pigeons. Yes, pigeons.

Trapeze by Simon Mawer: Yup, another tale of World War II spies -- this time of the fictional variety. I was delighted to learn from Mawer's publishers that he plans a sequel to this novel, as it ends with a tremendous cliffhanger. To some, it spoils the book; to me, it was the only thing he could do and not end up with a too-trite ending. In any event -- there have been lots and lots of novels around the adventures of the SOE, entrusted by Winston Churchill with the mission of setting Europe ablaze. One young woman goes off to France -- and finds her life becomes unexpectedly complicated. One of the most nailbiting and compulsively readable chase scenes ever, through the streets of Paris, features in this.

The Cranes Dance: by Meg Howrey: A paperback original from a novelist who I hope will go on to write more novels. Howrey takes us backstage at the ballet -- and it's not as glamorous as you might think. (Although neither is it quite as deranged and maniacal as the movie "Black Swan" would have you believe.) Kate Crane has damaged her neck but her pain can be quashed with Vicodin, which she pops steadily as she tells us the story of her life and that of her sister. Talented enough to be one of a tiny handful of soloists in a top ballet company in New York, Kate knows she'll never measure up to younger sister Gwen in sheer talent. But as the reader learns, it's not that that makes Kate uneasy and anxious in her relationship with Gwen, who, at the time the novel opens, may be physically absent from the company and the stage and the pages of the novel but who is vividly present as a part of Kate's life nonetheless. The ending doesn't do justice to what came before -- the last page or two is an odd anticlimax -- but for ballet fans or chick lit readers looking for something a bit different, this is just the ticket.

1222 by Anne Holt: Now, here's a novel that will chill you ... Anne Holt has set her mystery yarn in a snowbound resort hotel -- when a train is derailed by an avalanche, its passengers all must take refuge there, where they will be struck as the storm of the century swirls through. Hanne Wilhelmsen, a retired detective now confined to a wheelchair, is among their ranks, and when a murderer strikes, she has to step into the breach. It's the last thing Hanne wants -- she'd rather not interact with any of these strangers, most of whom seem to her to be keeping secrets, some large, some small. There's a mysterious passenger, a runaway teenager, a priest, a television personality... A kind of hommage to Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, this Norwegian mystery made me reconsider my recent aversion to Scandicrime and eagerly await Anne Holt's next novel to be released here.

Any of the novels above should help you beat the heat, and if you haven't managed to read any of the following (among my top books of 2012 so far), the summer is an excellent chance to catch up. Published over the last year or so, each is an excellent "thumping good read".

1. Gillespie and I by Jane Harris: Shame on you if you've missed it!
2. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern: Fantastical, and imaginative. 
3. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller: It's not just about the Trojan War.

What I'll Be Reading This Summer: A Selective List

Given the pace at which I consume books, it would be pretty difficult to come up with a comprehensive list of summer reading. But I've put together a kind of menu, of sorts, made up of books I'd like to read or re-read between now and Labor Day, for my amusement as much as your entertainment. We'll see how well I do on this!

APPETIZERS:

• Re-reading The Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier; I remember it as one of my favorites of her books, and reading Daphne by Justine Picardie prompted me to re-read at least one of the author's books.
• Miss New India by Bharati Mukherjee, of which I received an advance copy via Amazon's Vine program, looks like an interesting fictional glimpse into the phenomenon of the new India.
• Jar City by Arnaldur Indridason, is a book that I've started reading only to put down and forget about too often: time to do something about this!
• I've also had an advance review copy of The Summer Without Men by Siri Hustvedt sitting here far too long; time for me to read it!
• The Haves and the Have-Nots by Branko Milanovic -- as the political campaign season starts to creak into gear, I thought it would be interesting to delve into the issue of the wealth gap.
• I need to see what all the fuss is about, so I'll be trying The Redbreast by Jo Nesbo, despite my fatigue with Scandi-crime.

MAIN COURSES:

• The Swerve by Stephen Greenblatt isn't out yet, but I got an ARC at BookExpo, so I'll be able to read about famed bookhunter Poggio Bracciolini and the Renaissance. Already, I know this is a book I wish I'd written myself. Grrr.
• I don't usually read memoirs, but Read My Hips is written by a friend; I heard early excerpts from its predecessor four years ago in a Media Bistro class, so I need to see what Kim Brittingham has produced.
• The sequel to Lev Grossman's The Magicians, The Magician King, will be out in early August; I'm waiting to hear if I'll get an early copy from NetGalleys or if I'll have to tough it out until August but either way I'll want to read it.
• It's time for me to delve into Geraldine Brooks's novels; I'll be starting with March.
• After falling in love with Joseph Boyden's two novels, I'm looking forward to reading his short stories, Born With a Tooth.
• I'd like to read both of Patrick Leigh Fermor's books about Greece, Mani and Roumeli. I've just started on the former.
• Monica Ali has taken an odd step in her latest book, imagining Princess Diana as an American housewife. At least I think that's what's in store in Untold Story. 
• For my own research for my next book, I'll be tackling Edward Ball's The Genetic Strand, about DNA and family history.
• A Greater Journey by David McCullough recently landed on my doorstep. A neighbor wants to borrow it, so that's one prod; I'm also more interested in reading about Henry James than I am in reading more by him. Hmm....
• The Sandalwood Tree by Elle Newmark looks like an above-average historical novel. 
• I first heard about Oil on Water by Helon Habila on NPR and the interview grabbed my interest.
• William Boyd pulled a fast one on the publishing and art world with his fake biography, Nat Tate. I enjoy the author, so I'll have fun with this.

DESSERTS:

• Tides of War is a book that I ordered from the UK; Stella Tillyard is a fab biographer, focusing on the 18th century, so this novel by her set in the same period is a must-read.
• Colin Cotterill, author of the wonderful and whimsical Dr. Siri mysteries, takes a detour into Thailand in Killed at the Whim of a Hat.
• Being in a re-reading frame of mind, I think I'll go back and dabble in some books by Mary Stewart and Monica Dickens.
• Alexandra Robbins assures us that The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth; with the wave of Internet IPOs reaching dot.com bubble levels, I'll be interested in this!
• The Scarlet Contessa has been sitting here for nearly a year; unkind treatment of a novel by Jeanne Kalogridis of one of the most colorful women of the Italian Renaissance.
• Michael Dobbs has offered up another appealing-looking thriller in Old Enemies
• Paradise Lust by Brook Wilensky-Lanford is the story of a bizarre quest for the Garden of Eden
• Utter escapism: the new novel from Deanna Reynolds, The Dark Enquiry.
• Elizabeth Aston is also the novelist Elizabeth Pewsey, whose Mountjoy series of novels I adore and re-read often. Some more of them will be out on Kindle (hurrah!) and I'll be sampling some of her Austen sequels.

I'm sure a lot more will cross my path as the weeks go past, but as long as you keep tabs on this blog, you'll know what I've found worth reading, what is utterly unmissable, and what I think you should avoid at all costs! Happy Summer!

A Highly Idiosyncratic Summer Reading List

Everyone seems to be doing it. By "it", I mean, of course, that everyone is out there eagerly crafting their lists of books recommended for summer reading. And no, it's not just the blogosphere: JP Morgan's private bankers have their own list for their uber-wealthy clients (featuring Caroline Kennedy's poetry collection -- meh -- and Stacey Schiff's excellent biography of Cleopatra) and so does retail chain Anthropologie (they're pushing Swamplandia, which I admit I found over-hyped -- but more of that in another post.)

So, even though I can hear my grandmother's voice ringing in my ear -- "If (insert name of friend here) jumped off a bridge, would you just jump off right after them??" -- I'll join the parade. But I'm not going to focus on books with lotsa buzz, or even necessarily on new releases. I'll just pick a few books that are close to the top of my mind, some of which I read last month; others I may have read for the first time as a teenager. The only thing they have in common is that they all stick in the mind in some way: they are books that don't demand a heck of a lot of bandwidth to read (and who wants to think too hard about what they are reading when the mercury creeps toward 90 F?) but that will grab and hold your attention.

1. Case Histories by Kate Atkinson. The first of four mystery novels featuring Jackson Brodie that I read this year; I'm now waiting eagerly for the British DVD series to arrive. Brodie is a cynical private detective who finds himself caught up in a few related mysteries. Excellent.
2. Strawberry Fields by Marina Lewycka: I know this isn't the novel for which the author is best known, but I relished this story of the misadventures of a motley bunch of migrant workers from Eastern Europe and elsewhere, working in the fields and factories of England. Fab.
3. Objects of Our Affection by Lisa Tracy: An overlooked gem of a book; the story of how one woman comes to understand her family's history as she finally forces herself to clear out the possessions accumulated by her ancestors. How people intersect with history.
4. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier: If you haven't read this popular classic yet, shame on you! How can anyone not want to solve the mystery of the first Mrs. de Winter? And you'll never meet a creepier character than Mrs. Danvers. I first read this in the hot summer of 1976.
5. Sister by Rosamund Lupton: A new book that reminded me of Rebecca in its eerie tone and plot. A woman flies home to London when her sister vanishes; the story has one of the best twists imaginable in its final pages.
6. Chasing Aphrodite by Jason Felch and Ralph Frammolino. Excellent narrative of the corruption at the heart of the antiquities trade, and how that jeopardized the fate of America's richest museum. One of the best art world books I've read yet.
7. Blood River by Tim Butcher: So you think you're hot? Read this travel saga by a journalist dumb enough to try to follow in the footsteps of Henry Stanley (of "Dr Livingstone, I presume?" fame) through the Congo and you'll know what hot and sticky is really like!
8. Bruno, Chief of Police by Martin Walker: If Peter Mayles were better at writing novels, this is the kind of book he'd produce. Best of all, the author doesn't pander to nostalgia -- the crimes Bruno confronts are very 21st century. One of my faves from last year.
9. The Coroner's Lunch by Colin Cotterill: The first book in a series featuring Laos's only coroner in 1975 -- he also just happens to be the reincarnation of a spirit. Cotterill has a deft hand when crafting eccentric characters and gripping plots.
10. A Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor: The classic first volume of what Fermor planned to be a trilogy about his 1930s trip on foot from Holland to Constantinople. After Fermor's recent death, we're waiting to see if volume 3 will make it into print...
11. China Court by Rumer Godden: The most overlooked among my favorites by this author (others include The Greengage Summer). It's a different kind of tale, but I love the way she blends generations and stories.
12. A Place of Execution by Val McDermid: I watched the televised version of this, and then went back to read the book to remind myself how truly, deeply chilling this suspense story is. Best of all, McDermid pulls it off with a low body count. The suspense is all in the characters & story.
13. The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett: Laugh, chortle, rejoice -- the author has pulled off something wonderful in this little novella about the impact that discovering books has on the Queen of England.
14. Land of Green Ghosts by Pascal Khoo Thwe: On a more sober note, a young Burmese from the tribal lands discovers English literature -- and then decides to flee his country to study in England. A few years old now, but a wonderful story. 
15. Defining the World by Henry Hitchings: The story of how Dr. Johnson came up with his dictionary -- an imaginative format, a narrative characterized by wit and insight; scholarly but not at all oppressive.

As for the books that I'll be spending my summer reading, well, you'll have to wait and see: I'll be posting that list on July 4!