Best of 2011 Countdown: #1

We've arrived at our #1 books of 2011!  Pop the bubbly and raise a glass (of Diet Coke, of course, as it sure as hell tastes better than champagne).

Gianna:

The Tiger's Wife
Tea Obreht
Random House

Okay, so you’re not surprised. You had to be a little surprised that a first novel is at the top of my list (or at least surprised that so many first novels were in the list to begin with). 

Tea Obreht

I’ve talked about this book so much that I almost thought it was a 2010 book. I know I’ve said this before but I rarely read a book more than once, and certainly don’t read a book more than once in the span of just a few months. But that is exactly what I did with The Tiger’s Wife. I don’t know if I did it because I wanted to check myself; I had been going on and on about this book to anyone who would listen and maybe wanted to verify it before I looked like a complete idiot. Yeah, turns out I missed so much of this magical, layered, rich, beautiful book the first time around that a second reading just made me talk about it even more. Annoying right? [Incredibly.] In short, this novel is about a young doctor trying to navigate her way after the death of her beloved grandfather who was once a well respected doctor himself. It is filled with amazing stories, fables, and history. This is a novel that you will never forget; it will live on your shelf forever (and I am sorry but this is a book you must have in physical form, some books are just too good for e-readers only…and I will die on that hill).

Tea Obreht is an extraordinary writer, a genius.

This was one of the last books I sold when I was with Random House, and I just can’t help but think how incredibly lucky I was to have that opportunity.


Liz:


Galore
Michael Crummey
Other Press


For those people not in the book industry or unfamiliar with the various alignments of publishing houses, allow me a moment of explanation.  In my capacity as a district sales manager for Random House Inc, I sell both publishing groups owned by Random House--Knopf, Doubleday, Vintage/Anchor, etc--and I also sell books from independent presses that contract with Random House for distribution services.  Other Press is one of those smaller presses, one that specializes in literary fiction and nonfiction.  The press publishes books that challenge readers as well as entertain and educate, and the team working for Other Press regularly manages to find surprising, wonderful books from around the world.  My top pick for 2011 is one of those books.

Michael Crummey

Sometimes as a reader you just have to let go of the reins and go where the story takes you.  In the case of Galore, that place is Paradise Deep, a remote fishing village in Newfoundland so removed from the rest of the country that the only Bible in town is half a book that was found inside a fish that was obviously hungry for the Word.  Galore starts with a beached whale, and as the citizens of Paradise Deep begin to break down the beast, they find a man, naked and bleached, inside of the belly.  While they stand around making fun of the size of the man's genitalia (and you know that's what Gianna and I would be doing), the man moves.  He is alive, he smells like rotten fish, and he has no back story.  The people name him Judah--after a debate about whether Jonah or Judas was the biblical whale bait and a compromise--and he becomes a constant in this story of multiple generations and diverse characters.  I compare Galore to other favorite books--the storytelling magic of The Hakawati, the folklorish charm of Maritime Canada in The Shipping News.  The wonderful cast of characters reminds me of the town people in the Dutch movie Antonia's Line, one of my favorite movies ever.  


While Galore was published in the United States in 2011, it was an earlier release in Canada. There it won the Commonwealth Writer's Prize for Best Book, the Canadian Authors Association Literary Award, and was a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction.  It's full of mythology and sea yarns and terrific characters.  It's a book that I would love to see illustrated because Michael Crummey creates so many amazing images that have lingered in my mind all year. Oh, and you know I love my Canadian fiction.  Galore is my favorite book of the year.

30 Day Book Challenge: Day 24

Day 24: Book That Contains Your Favorite Scene

Gianna:

This was a really tough question. I sat on this one for a few days, in fact, going back and forth on a few of my favorite books. I finally decided I would abandon all of those books and concentrate on what books really gave me joy or meant a lot to me more recently and I just kept coming back to one book that I find myself talking about often. It was also one of my favorite books of 2010. Of course now I would have to pick a favorite scene from this book that has many great scenes in it – so this too caused another issue. The book is This Time Together by sweet, sweet Carol Burnett. There are so many laugh out loud (seriously) moments in this book, but pages 57 -59 are my favorite. Carol is just hitting it big and her grandmother is in the hospital due to a heart attack. Burnett is told that her grandmother would be fine so she stays in NY and does not fly home to LA, but has asked her cousin (Cuz) to check in on “Nanny” in the hospital. Her cousin checks in on her every day. One day the cousin walks out of the elevator to see a long line of people waiting in the hall, some even in costumes and reading Hollywood trade magazines. The line went all the way to Nanny’s door.

From the book:

Cuz pushed through the crowd. “Excuse me! I’m her grand-daughter!” She eventually managed to reach the door and open it. There sat Nanny, propped up in bed, being entertained by a little girl in a tutu who was tap-dancing and doing some baton twirling, accompanied by her father on a harmonica playing “Dixie.” The child ended with a spectacular split and a great big “TA DA,” arms up in the air, the baton twirling on one finger.


Nanny said, “Thank you. I’ll tell Carol about you. Now send in the next one, please.”


Cuz looked at her dumbfounded. “Nanny, what in the world is all this about?”


Nanny shrugged and smiled. “I got bored.”

There are some other good Nanny stories in here but fake auditioning people is pretty great. Some people just dream of doing things like this… she actually did it.

Anyway, I just loved this book cover to cover.

Liz:

I chose a scene from a book I've read more recently.  An early contender for my favorite book of 2011 is the novel Galore by Michael Crummey.  I LOVE this book about an isolated fishing village in Newfoundland that spans 200 years.  It's storytelling magic.  And I'm open about my Canada obsession, but I'd love this book if it were set on the coast of Argentina, or the coast of Italy, or the coast of a Japanese island.  It's an extra treat that it's Canadian.  I was supposed to read an excerpt of Galore for work and I dutifully picked it up before my sales conference and plunged in.  Because I had about 20 other books to read, though, I hadn't planned to read the whole book at that time; I just needed the flavor of it for conference.  There's a scene at the beginning of the book, though, that sold me whole hog and I neglected my other responsibilities for two days while I submerged myself into the world of some wonderful scenes and characters.  I love everything about this book.

Here's the scene--

At the beginning of Galore, a whale washes up on shore in the coastal village of Paradise Deep, and the townspeople gather around the whale to discuss what's to be done with the corpse.  Some of the fishermen begin to dismantle the body, but then they are shocked to discover a man--stinking of fish and naked--in the belly of the whale.  The villagers are appalled and fascinated...and cattily remarking upon the small penis size of the dead man in the whale.  I love this--I would totally be the one cracking wiener jokes at such a moment.  But then the dead man moves.  He's still breathing, and though the villagers don't know how to react to such a phenomenon, they dress him and try to talk to him, discover his story.  He's mute.  They have to call him something, though, and so the villagers settle on "Judah;" they only have half a Bible in Paradise Deep (the product of another belly-of-a-fish discovery) and no one can remember if it's Jonah or Judas found in the belly of the Biblical whale. 

I love this scene because it rings true to human nature, and it establishes a sense of the miraculous among the mundane, and it captures the underlying humor found everywhere.  It perfectly sets the tone for the book.  Of course I had to discover Judah's story and immerse myself in the lore of Paradise Deep.  I wish I were more artistic; I would draw the scenes from Michael Crummey's novel a la Rockwell Kent.  And seriously, you need to be reading Galore.  This won't be the last time I mention it.