What You're Not Reading, Day 2

Gianna: How are you?
Liz: Okay, but I'm on my Friday conference call.
Gianna: Any chance you can meet for lunch?
Liz: Can't. Visiting stores. Everything okay?
Gianna: Yeah, I'm working on blog ideas. Will send you an email a little later.

And then the next thing I know, Gianna is saying that we're going to be posting something every day for, like, 100 days in a row. She doesn't understand that it's March Madness and I need to watch obscene amounts of basketball (Zorro the cat is currently winning my bracket pool, by the way). She doesn't seem to remember that baseball season starts in a week. Also, she has forgotten that she was the one complaining about a 30 day book challenge.

Humph.

Fine.

In the spirit of Gianna's decision to co-opt my life for a third of the year (at least), I'm picking The Antagonist by Lynn Coady as today's book that you aren't reading but definitely should.

Here's the premise: Gordon Rankin Jr, or "Rank" as he's known, is 40, grumpy, and wondering what's happened to his life. And then he discovers that a college friend has published a novel. Then he reads the novel and discovers that the book...is based on Rank's life. He's pissed off; his life has been stolen from him (sound familiar, Gianna?), and he's not afraid to write the author, his former friend, to tell him exactly what he thinks. Thus begins Lynn Coady's big, funny, smart, compassionate book. The book is written as a series of Rank's email messages--many fueled by alcohol--expressing his hurt and outrage, and also Rank's version of his life.

Dear Lynn Coady,

I think we could be pals.

I love your book.

Do you like cats?

Best,

liz

Rank was adopted, and so while his father, a royal pain in the ass and general failure, is a tiny, banty rooster of a guy, Gordon Rankin Jr. is a boy giant. While Gordon Sr. is the guy who throws kids out of the parking lot of his food stand, Rank is becoming an ace hockey player and Gordon Sr. apologist. It's a complex relationship, and Rank believes his life is "King Midas in reverse;" everything he touches turns to shit. Things happen (I don't want to spoil everything). Thus, it's not completely a surprise when he discovers that one of his best friends in college decides to steal his life for a novel, and it's not really a surprise that he's angry.

Discovering new books is one of the best parts of working in Book Land. The best emails and phone calls I receive start with things like "Have you read ________ yet?" or "You have to read _________." The Antagonist is one of those books. It's a book that my fellow book nerds couldn't shut up about. It's really that good. And in case you think we're wrong (and we're never wrong), The Antagonist was nominated for the Giller Prize (Canada's Pulitzer) and genius book critic Ron Charles of the Washington Post wrote this delightful, perfect review of the book.

Oh yeah, and Lynn Coady is a Canadian. I love my Canadians.

New Year, New 30 Day Book Challenge, Day 28

 Day 28: Upcoming Books We're Excited About.

Gianna:

As we near the end of our thirty-day book challenge, we thought it might be nice to look ahead and see which books we are most excited about. Mostly right now though, I am excited for this damn thirty day challenge to end. Oy.

The Fight to Save Juarez by Ricardo Ainslie (April)
This will be of particular interest to those of us who live in a border state. This is a portrait of Mexico’s bloodiest city. It's a first hand perspective on the drug war that has claimed close to 60,000 lives since 2007. Yes, you read that correctly, 60,000.

TransAtlantic by Colum McCann (June)
I just learned that we would have a new McCann this morning and I am so thrilled. I believe, and I could be wrong, but think it’s a novel from his short story about the first non-stop transatlantic flight in 1919.  The short story was published in the New Yorker last year.  

The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout (March)
A family is haunted by an accident that has killed their father. The two sons move away from their small Maine town, leaving the sister behind, but years later she calls them home where their past must be dealt with.

A Thousand Pardons by Jonathan Dee (March)
An emotional drama of a marriage in crisis. I hope you read the Pulitzer Prize nominated novel The Privileges; it was absolutely fantastic and this sounds like a perfect follow up.

Benediction by Kent Haruf (March)
I’ve written about Kent Haruf a few times, he is just a beautiful writer. Haruf has used the town of Holt, Colorado again as in previous books, this time a family deals with a father’s diagnosis with terminal cancer.


Liz:

Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell (February)
Karen Russell is a brilliant short story writer, and I'm a huge fan. I'm her #1 fan. Think Annie Wilkes from Misery. This stellar collection is playful, whimsical, and...frightening. Russell plays with horror here, and with great success. And don't forget that her novel Swamplandia! was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.


Ghostman by Roger Hobbs (February)
The last time I heard the Knopf folks so excited about a thriller, it was for a series of books written by Stieg Larsson. After a bank robbery goes wrong, the ghostman (normally the guy in heists who is so unmemorable that he's a ghost) is sent in to track down the robbers, the money, and the explanation for what happened. Think Ocean's Eleven meets Harvey Keitel's character from Pulp Fiction.

The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud (April)
It's been awhile since Claire Messud had a new book, but this one is worth the wait. The woman upstairs is the quiet neighbor you don't notice except in passing in a halfway when you exchange half-smiles. She's the repressed woman who's given up her dreams. This is Messud's protagonist, a teacher who lives in solitude and fear until she meets a family that opens her eyes to her dreams deferred. I love this book.


The Antagonist by Lynn Coady (January)
Okay, so I'm cheating a little because this book is on sale now. I'm guessing that you're not hearing about it much, though, and that's a huge shame. It's crazy good. Here's the premise: A guy writes a novel. One of his college friends, Gordon "Rank" Rankin reads the book. Rank discovers that his friend has based the novel on Rank's life, and he, Rank, starts writing emails to the author--outraged, crazed, drunken, pleading, confessional messages. Rank is the opposite of Midas; everything he touches turns to shit. Fans of A Fraction of the Whole should take note. Really, this book is the best novel out there that's flying under the radar.

Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala (March)

While on vacation over Christmas a few years ago, Sonali Deraniyagala's life was destroyed when the tsunami wave killed her husband, two sons, and parents. One moment she was in a Jeep rushing away from the devastation, and the next moment she's coming to into ruins. Yeah, it's not an upbeat or easy read, but it is courageous and unflinching. It's gripping.